


I Swear She's An Angel

by serpentqueenz



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, lovers who dont want to be in love and it's kinda annoying but they'll get there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-07
Updated: 2018-11-24
Packaged: 2019-07-27 11:08:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16217771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/serpentqueenz/pseuds/serpentqueenz
Summary: After a tall, raven haired girl named Mika rolls into town, Sweet Pea gets caught up in her mysterious and dark past. Will he be able to break through all the walls she’s built the last 19 years of her life? Or will he be forever stuck wishing for more, but never getting what he wants.______Sweet Pea can feel the shift between them. Maybe he wasn’t the only one who felt that since Mika came around, she had forced a change in him. Maybe he had made a change in her too. “I can promise I won’t ever hurt you,” he murmurs. “And I’ll never go away. Unless you want me to…”She shakes her head. “No, this is good,” she mumbles. “Letting someone in. I gotta let people in sometimes, right?”Sweet Pea shrugs against her. “If you want to, you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”Mika closes her eyes and rests her head on his shoulder. “I think I’ve already let you in and that scares me.”





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Aubrey. Without you this wouldn't be possible.](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Aubrey.+Without+you+this+wouldn%27t+be+possible.).



> Hello everyone! This is our first fic on Ao3 having been exclusive on tumblr, but we've made the move. I hope you love a good Sweet Pea and Original Character fic!

 

_**Chapter One** _

* * *

 

The air in the Whyte Wyrm separates in an instant and right in the middle of a pool match that he had sworn that he’d kick Fangs’ ass in. Sweet Pea feels it as heads turn, all facing the front door. Fangs is standing by him but he’s not present as Sweet Pea is about to question the shift. Small gasps echo, eyes widen as he turns around, looking for the source of the silence pulsing through the Whyte Wyrm.

When Sweet Pea faces the door, Jughead already has an arm around her. It was almost ritualistic when people gather around her. The stranger at the door. Sweet Pea sniggers as people flock on metaphorical hands and knees to be by the stranger, all he could see was a mess of long, dark hair and legs that he couldn’t decide where they started or ended. He turns back to the pool table, ignoring the hype.

“Mika!” he hears Toni callout, and then the scurry of her hurried steps towards the girl. Sweet Pea pays no mind. Just another visitor on their way out of town, he guesses. Nothing new and nothing worth his time.

“Hey Sweet Pea!” Jughead calls out but Sweet Pea throws his middle finger in the air, ignoring his leader.

Sweet Pea hears a low chuckle from behind him. “Sweets,” FP says, adding a punch in his ribs. “You’re not going to introduce yourself?”

Sweet Pea holds back a roll of his eyes and groans at FP. “I don’t need to introduce myself,” he says with a smirk. “I have nothing to prove.”

“Ah kid,” FP laughs. “You’re always searching for a fight. You might have met your match,” he adds with a shrug.

Sweet Pea scoffs and raises his eyebrow. “No fucking chance, FP.”

FP grabs Sweet Pea’s shoulder but looks past him into the distance. “I guess we’ll see. Play nice, won’t you?”

“Play nice? Who is she?”

“Family friend of sorts.”

“Not my family.”

FP shakes his head. “Don’t be like that, kid. She’s had it rough.”

FP shoves Sweet Pea away before Jughead comes rushing towards him, with a girl who stamped her presence so hard on him as soon as he saw her.

Sweet Pea noticed a few things in the new girl as she approached. One thing that was so apparent was that she was as tall as Jughead, maybe taller. Her eyes were dark and maybe darkened by whatever brought her here to the snake pit. But she smiled as Jughead dragged her around and, if he thought about it, he felt kind of sorry for her being put on display as everyone cheered and hugged her on the way to the pool table.

Sweet Pea looked back to see where FP was but he was standing against the wall, chuckling in Sweet Pea’s direction and only then did he realise he was standing there, mouth open and looking like an idiot.

“Sweets!” Jughead says, grin stretched from ear to ear. “This is Mika!”

It was in the way she looked him up and down that gave him a sense of unease. She licked her lips quickly and gave him a small smile. “Hey,” she says to him with an amused smile.

“Hi,” was all he could muster.

Jughead sighs out loud before saying; “This is Sweet Pea, he’s kind of like our brawn to my brains.”

Sweet Pea stands with words stuck in the back of his throat. “I’m Sweet Pea,” he stammers, killing himself at the same time.

He feels heat creeping up the back of his neck and his loss of words makes him want to kick himself. “Oh honey,” she says with a smirk. “You’re definitely not the brains. And I find it hard to believe you’re the brawn the a name like that.”

Jughead’s eyes grow and the struggle to try and hold back a snigger was all too apparent to Sweet Pea. He finds it in himself to not break the pool cue as he grips on tightly.

Mika reaches up to Sweet Pea’s face and gives him a quick pat before spinning on her heels and declaring; “Going to get me a drink, have fun, kids.” He loses track as she continues to talk at people around her.

Her voice is acid-trip like when it rings through his ears and even though he can barely comprehend what she’s saying, missing every word, he takes a deep breath as he keeps the sound of her voice in his mind.

“Are you actually lost for words?” Jughead asks.

Sweet Pea keeps his eyes down, not making eye contact with his leader. “I don’t know what the hell just happened.”

But he watches her as she laughs with FP. She moves like satin as she wears her Southside Serpents jacket and Sweet Pea is almost convinced that it’s like she’s always been here. The Serpent seems to slither while it’s on her shoulders.

She came through the Whyte Wyrm like a storm and at a time when everything around him seemed to be stagnant and wrong. But, for the first time in a long time, for some reason, he felt at ease.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a fight with the Ghoulies, a bruised and bloody Sweet Pea just wants to lick his wounds alone, but Mika interrupts with her trademark attitude and powerful presence. He can’t stop thinking, FP was right, maybe Sweet Pea has really met his match this time…

_**Chapter Two** _

* * *

 

It’s a cold, dark place where Sweet Pea feels he stands. Not physically, but where the Serpents have taken him.  A static zone closer to hell. He finds himself questioning every single fibre of his being when he can’t tell the difference between his own blood on his fists and that of the Ghoulie he just handled. Jughead had told him time and time again that it was some kind of soul-split he experiences that tears Jughead between the Northside and their pit on the Southside. That was the worst thing about it all. That Jughead was usually always right.

Sometimes, Sweet Pea feels bad.

Most of the time, he just feels tired.

He leans against the sink in the back room of the Whyte Wyrm with one hand steading himself and the other running under cold water. For a moment, he’ll let his eyes stay shut, praying for some sort of moment of peace. But rarely there is ever a moment of peace and he’ll wait in here until Fangs decides that it’s too quiet out in the bar and he needs some sort of entertainment.

Sweet Pea will do anything to break apart from the fight the Serpents just won against the Ghoulies and the guilt that follows it, even if it means standing out here alone. He decides Fangs will just have to find his own distraction.

He hears the door click open and soft footsteps building behind him. “Hey,” starts a voice, “Jughead sent me out here to see how you were doing. I kind of gave him shit for caring so much because Jughead Jones doesn’t seem like the kind of kid to care about anything and then there’s the fact that everyone says you’re this huge badass but, I thought I better listen to the son of FP Jones. And besides,” Mika says with a laugh, “Toni might be tiny but she cares about you and she’d probably kick my ass if I didn’t at least check.”

She’s hurried and nervous, he can tell, but Sweet Pea exhales loudly, keeping his concentration on the running tap. He wants to be alone but he knows by now that the Serpents don’t do anything alone. Even to get the back room for a moment alone was something that he had to convince Fangs about and now, that was short lived. “You can tell Jughead to shove his concern up his ass,” Sweet Pea says, still refusing to look at her. “But you’re right about T,” he hides a smile for his best friend. “Tell her I’ll be out in a moment.”

“So you have a weakness, huh?” Mika says, still standing in the doorway. “Toni Topaz, your very own Serpent Queen.”

“Seems like you walked in and already joined the ranks -”

Mika cuts him off. “Seems like someone’s a little pissed off because I stole his title of ‘ _Second Serpent Queen’,_  were you hoping for it? Or did I steal your little crown?”

Sweet Pea’s breath hitches in his throat and he’s torn between turning around to fight back or letting it go. But his heart beats a little faster as he stumbles for something to say. “Nah,” he replies instead. “I think Jughead already won that title.”

Mika laughs softly and it rings around him with a sense of relief, “Was that a joke?”

Sweet Pea just shrugs as he continues staring at the water.

The words; “Are you okay?” hang in the air above him and his eyes shoot open before he stretches up, putting his guard up as well when he turns around. Mika brushes her hair back behind her ears as she looks to Sweet Pea with worry in her eyes. He notices that she takes two steps forward before taking one back and instead, she puts her hands in her jacket pockets and shrugs.

“Am I okay?” he repeats.

She sighs loudly and rolls her eyes. “You know, Jughead really talked you up when he was giving me the deal on you, I don’t know, but a big guy like yourself really oughta learn how to communicate… spell it out with me, C-O-M -”

Sweet Pea cuts her off; “I know how to spell!”

“Do you know how to talk?” she challenges.

Sweet Pea shakes his head and groans at the sink. “Just not used to having newbies around…” he mumbles.

He can feel her standing behind him before she makes her way to the sink, leaning against it with her arms folded. “You might need to ah,” she says waving her hand in his direction, “Put something on those splits and tape them up. Just a suggestion of course,” she adds nonchalantly, “I’m sure you know exactly what you’re doing.”

Sweet Pea exhales loudly before turning to look her in the eye. Most of the time, people tend to step back when he’s so close but he could tell that she took the challenge, straightening her own back and raising both of her eyebrows. “By the sounds of things,  _Mimi_ , you know exactly what you’re doing.”

“I’m just trying to be nice, Sweet Pea,” she almost hisses, looking at him. “But I can see that’s not something that you’re accustomed to. Here’s a tip; brass knuckles are  _not_  only for the aesthetic. They might just help out your little problems with injury. Spread the word.” Mika shoves past Sweet Pea, letting her nails dig into his shoulder, leather snapping along the way. “And don’t call me Mimi!”

His voice catches and he feels his hand tense, he takes a deep breath. “Mika!” he calls.

She stops with her hand on the door handle but turns her head to look at Sweet Pea. “Hmmm?”

He swallows whatever pride he had left, closing his eyes as he speaks. “Look,” he says with a breath. “I know I’ve been kind of a hardass. I’m just going through some shit, you know?” he says honestly, regretting it in an instant.

Sweet Pea wishes he could take the words back, swallow them down. Not look so fucking weak in front of Mika but he feels the tension in his spine give up just a little more when she lets go of the door handle and walks back towards him.

She takes a few steadying breaths with him and he notices it. It’s in the way she moves her hands at the same time as he does and she meets his eyes. “Going through some shit?” she asks gently. “We all are.”

He laughs a little bit as he rubs his neck. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Everyone goes through shit, you’re nothing special.”

Sweet Pea manages a laugh. “Way to make a guy feel special, ya know?”

She lifts her shoulders and gives Sweet Pea a wink. “One in a million and all of that shit, yeah?”

“Something like that. That shit is reserved for the romantics. Like Jughead. Not my thing.”

Slowly, Mika spreads her fingers out, flexing them in front of her before lowering her hands to where his were at his sides, reaching out for his bloodied hands. Sweet Pea almost retracts from the touch, wanting to recoil. Wanting to strike back. Not understanding the touch at all. But when her fingers lace with his, he finally feels steady. He finally feels like he’s back grounded on the Southside. “Now, Sweet Pea,” she says, stern look in her eye. “Are you okay?”

Sweet Pea feels a pulse in his jaw when he’s asked again but her eyes keep him in their zone. “Now I am,” he tells her honestly.

Mika smiles at him before tilting her head to look Sweet Pea with a smirk, “As for being a hardass, it’s all good,” she shrugs.

They pause in the moment as Sweet Pea feels his guard let loose. “And why is that?”

Mika bites her lip before looking at him sideways. “Because you might be the hardass of the Serpents, but I’m harder. And the Southside can’t show you all the things I can.”

“Is that a promise?” he asks.

Mika tightens her grip a little more when he watches her body curve to move away with him. “Promises are for the romantics too, keep that in mind.”

Sweet Pea follows Mika out with his hand still in hers and wonders just exactly how those lips might feel. And if she believes that promises are for the romantics, how many has she broken?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for any kind of love you show us, we love you for it.


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During a late night truck drive, Sweet Pea shares some of his past, while Mika shoves hers farther down. Will he break through her tough as nails exterior? Or will he be doomed to always be kept at an arms length…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave us loving in the form of reviews?

 

_**Chapter Three**_

* * *

 

Sweet Pea catches flashes of Mika’s dark eyes as they drive past lamp posts. He watches her sideways as she plays with her lower lip, pulling at it. He sees how full her lips are but keeps himself from laughing at the way she sits in his pickup; her legs pulled up and her chin resting on her knees. “Are you going to tell me where you live?” he asks her. “Or am I gonna have to drive around all night?”

Mika smiles out the window and he sees her eyes glass over in the moonlight. “You’re gonna have to drive around all night,” she says with a shrug.

Sweet Pea shakes his head as he changes gear, looking over to her. “Hey,” he starts, poking his finger into her shoulder, giving her a shock. “You don’t trust me?”

She looks over to him in the driver’s seat. “No,” she starts. “I don’t. But I don’t feel like going home either.”

Sweet Pea takes his eyes off the road for a moment, frowning at Mika. He had picked her up from the club at 11am. He honestly thought they had made some kind of progress in the hours they’d been together because for the first time since meeting her, she didn’t take a stab at his ego. There were a few things that Sweet Pea had figured out about her. She was super fucking intelligent and made him feel like a fucking idiot. She was funny.

And she was really, really closed off.

“You don’t trust me?” he laughs, booming through the truck and out the window where the air wasn’t as cold as it had been only a month ago. “If you think I was going to do anything to you, don’t you think I would have done it already?”

“So you’ve thought out a plan?” she challenges, meeting his gaze in the mirror.

Sweet Pea groans, taking his hand off the gear stick for just a moment to rub his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose for relief. “Listen, Mimi -”

“Don’t call me that, Sweety,” she says with a poisonous tone. “Or I’ll be utilising the tailgate of this truck and the bottom of your guys most beloved river.”

Sweet Pea swallows loudly. As much as he wanted to laugh in Mika’s face, there was an air of truth in her words and it was something that not only scared him.

But fucking had him wanting to know just how far this girl would go.

“I don’t know what kinda people you fucked with back where you’re from, but I’m not about to do anything stupid with the new girl in the middle of the night, okay?”

For the first time all day, she falls silent. He can feel her shift her legs a little higher up the seat of his Dodge and he hears her take a steadying breath, “You Serpents sure do take your laws seriously….”

“Law five, baby -”

“A Serpent never betrays his own,” she cuts off sternly. “And don’t call me baby, either.”

Sweet Pea raises an eyebrow. Almost everything that fell out of the girls mouth surprised him. “You know the laws?”

“FP never told you? I’m practically born royalty,” Mika says, blowing Sweet Pea a kiss. “Bow to your Queen and that kinda shit.”

Sweet Pea pauses for a moment, shaking his head. “He hasn’t really said anything to be honest.”

“Good,” is all she says. “Just the way I like it.”

“Mysterious?”

“Keep ‘em guessing,” Mika replies lightly.

Sweet Pea keeps driving through town. Fog was starting to settle and he was tired but he knew that if she really wanted to go home, she would have said so by now.

His frequency had been so far stretched recently, he didn’t know where he stood at this point. Half of his very being was torn between wanting to make something of himself and the other half was venom pulsing through his bloodstream. Everyday he felt a little older. Every bad thing that was practically handed to him on a silver platter wore him out and whatever slither of pure good he had in his life just made him feel guilty.

For some reason, the moonlight made Mika’s hair seem a little lighter. He watched her face cut in and out through dim lights. Mika’s eyes shoot to the mirror just as he was watching her bite her lip again. “Uhh,” he says awkwardly.

Mika shoots him a smile and rolls her eyes. “Don’t be so nervous all the time,” she sighs. “It makes it so obvious that you’re watching me.”

Sweet Pea snickers, shaking his head with his mess of hair falling into his eyes. “I’m not watching you,” he scoffs. “I was just looking in my rearview.”

Mika punches Sweet Pea’s shoulder, he holds back the need to rub it because shit, she packed a punch. “Are you just looking in your rearview mirror when we’re at the club? Are you just looking in your rearview mirror when we’re at school?” she asks, malice lacing her words. “Because Fangs and Toni won’t buy that story for a second.”

Sweet Pea grips the steering wheel a little tighter, remembering to kick Fangs’ ass and to tell Toni to piss off out of his life. “Fangs and T are the gossiping old hags,” Sweet Pea says, refusing to meet her eyes again. “They like to stir drama, don’t believe anything they tell you.”

Sweet Pea always knew the only person he could trust these days was Jug. He makes a mental note to make sure Toni and Fangs know that.

“Oh my god,” Mika exclaims. “Honestly? You’re going to act like a little kid?”

“What?” he says, giving her a sideways glare.

“Just own it,” she moans. “I mean, I would be fucking blind if I hadn’t looked at you.”

Sweet Pea feels her words sitting in the truck alongside them. “All I’m getting from this is that you think I’m hot,” he mumbles.

“I’m not arguing that logic,” she says. “You’re using your brain…”

Sweet Pea’s chest caves as he goes into the wrong gear, making his truck scream against the wet road, glaring at Mika at the same time, watching her lip suck in. As the truck swerves a little, she clings onto the door handle.

His mind keeps running, patting the dash of his truck. “Sorry, baby,” he murmurs.

“You guys have this weird thing towards your vehicles,” Mika states. “Come on, give me an origin story,” she coaxes, “it’s not often a 19 year old cruises the streets in a 79 Dodge…”

“78,” he corrects. They sit in soul cleansing silence while he forces his heart to talk. He hated being open. Being open meant that people knew things about him that he didn’t even care to admit were part of him. But they were in the streets of Riverdale at 2am searching for something neither of them truly knew what they were looking for. “It was my grandpa’s,” he tells her. “A gift from Nan when I was 16. I flipped it myself, took me about a year on my own, another 3 months on top of that with the help of Betty and Fangs.”

She hums quietly alongside Kings of Leon, a gift from Betty for his birthday. “And your parents didn’t care that you just got this massive piece of metal for your birthday? Sounds like a death trap if you ask me.”

Sweet Pea’s mind weakens for a split second, keeping his eyes plastered in front of them. “I don’t think they would have,” he says quietly. “Dad loved metal and I don’t really know anything about what my mom would or wouldn’t have cared about…” he exhales roughly, running his hand over his face. “All I know is that she didn’t care about me.”

As soon as the words come out of his mouth, he regrets it. He wants to snatch them up. The road they were driving didn’t seem short enough when he opened up so much. A hand reaches out and pats his forearm, black nails dancing on his skin. “What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?” she says quietly. “I get it if you don’t want to say anything. Saying shit out loud hurts a lot more than bottling it up unhealthily,” she says with a small laugh.

“I do mind,” he says blankly. His heart beats so hard, it’s coming out of his ribcage and spilling into the truck with them.

They sit in silence as he finds the road to Sweetwater.

The roads roam in so many directions, he feels lost even though he knows the roads like the back of his hand. He hadn’t spoke about his parents in the longest time. He doesn’t even know who knows his story. It’s buried so deep in him, sometimes, if he tries hard enough, the story doesn’t even exist.

He swallows down a level of malice that he doesn’t want to acknowledge but the buzzing at the back of his head keeps up. For some reason, watching Mika curled up on her seat made him want to at least try.

“Grandpa died when I was 4,” he starts. “It was always me, Nan and dad. Dad passed when I was 10. Worst day of my fucking life.”

The static is loud against the sound of the truck rattling across gravel road. He can see Mika’s chest rising and falling so fast, it was like she was out of breath but she places a hand back on him. Making him feel grounded. Keeping him here. “I get that,” she whispers. “I get it a little too much.”

He plays with her words for a little bit, wondering just what she meant. “You lost your parents too?”

She plays with the split in the knee of her jeans, keeping herself occupied. “I lost everything the day I lost them,” she says with a nervous laugh. “All I have is me and my bike and everything that FP and Jug can offer me without feeling like some fucked up pity party.”

Sweet Pea smiles weakly to himself. “I get that a little too much too.”

Mika turns to look at him. “And your mom?” she asks warily. “She’s around?”

“She hasn’t been around in a long time, sugar,” he says, dripping sour with his words. “Wouldn’t even recognise her if she passed me on the street. Not that I would ever end up in California.”

“I’m sorry,” is all she says.

“Don’t be,” he replies with a sigh. “My Nan is the only woman that means anything to me and I’d pretty much skin a person alive if they did anything to her.”

Mika chuckles, finally letting her eyes light up again. “She raised you, and she didn’t do a shitty job,” she shrugs. “I bet with the Serpents, if anyone did anything to your Nan, you’d be waiting in line to skin the person.”

“I would skin the person who tried to get in line before me too for taking the privilege away from me.”

Mika’s eyes darken. “That’s fucking scary.”

“Too scary?”

“Nah,” she replies softly. “Just my kinda level of fucked up scary.”

“Good,” he says, relief edging into his voice. “I like fucked up too.”

Mika looks out her window, still hanging on to the door handle. “Maybe we have a little more in common than we thought, Sweety.”

He lets it fall silent. Having a certain weight off his shoulders, he tries to pinpoint the last time he felt like his frequency wasn’t so untouchable. A moment of peace was what he was hanging onto right now and everything seemed just a little more right than it had in the last few months. He liked her, he knew it. But she came around in a storm yet she was offering the peace he had been begging for.

They pull up to the river’s edge. It had been a long time since he was last out here but at this time of the morning, it still held on to the serenity. “We came at a good time,” he announces.

“Good conditions for an good old fashioned murder?” she teases.

“Nah,” he laughs. “Missed the Northsider’s fuck sessions.”

“Those vanilla’s sure know how to keep it classy, don’t they?”

Sweet Pea winds down the windows and lets the silence wash over a little more. When he’s with Toni, it’s usually erratic conversations that go on for hours. Jughead has a silence that makes Sweet Pea feel uncomfortable and Fangs’ energy gets Sweet Pea so hyped up, it makes him a little crazy. Mika’s presence was so chill, Sweet Pea didn’t want this to ever end. “Do you miss Chicago?”

She stops for a moment with her hands in her bag, looking for something but he sees her lips pursing and she closes her eyes. “How did you know I’m from Chicago?” she asks, a harshness in her tone.

Sweet Pea knits his eyebrows together before saying; “Jug told me.”

She opens her eyes before pulling a joint out of her bag and looking at Sweet Pea, a seriousness on her face. “Of course he did,” she mutters. “Do you mind?” she asks, waving the joint in the air.

“I’m down for a blunt,” he tells her. “Maybe it’ll help me sleep tonight.”

They hop out of the truck and he jumps into the back tray of the Dodge. Mika stands at the back and he hands out his hand, “Do you trust me?” he asks.

She eyes his hand for a moment and says; “Was that an Aladdin reference?”

He feels his face turning red. “Yeah it fucking was.”

Mika laughs as she takes his hand and he hauls her up with ease. “I don’t have a blanket or anything like that, I’m sorry.”

They sit down and Mika sparks the joint up. Sweet Pea watches her head fall back a little and her eyes close again, letting the smoke take over her. Sweet Pea takes off his jacket with the moon shining on the snake, almost making it move and slither. He lays it down on the truck and Mika lays back on it, lighting the joint again and inhaling. She passes it over to him and he holds it in his throat, his lungs fill until they overflow. His mind fucking splits in half, he feels like he’s hovering over himself for a moment. “Thanks for this,” she hums again.

Sweet Pea’s body feels free as he lets the smoke take him. Everything that this girl has ever said today repeats like secrets in his mind but he’s enjoying it. Liking the normality of the situation. “You didn’t answer my question about Chicago,” he presses. “Don’t you miss your friends?”

She puts her hands behind her head, watching the sky. “Cliche of you to want to get deep while we’re smoking a blunt under the stars, don’t you think?”

He feels heat creeping up his cheeks again, spreading into his trachea. “Kinda the ideal situation, don’t you think?”

“No,” she says flatly. “There’s things I miss about Chicago. I miss my people. There’s things there I don’t miss though.”

“Like what?” he asks, taking another drag of the joint.

“Memories.”

Sweet Pea doesn’t go for more information. He understood. Sometimes it’s hard to face the memories and he didn’t want her to feel any worse. “Right.”

“The city though, it’s amazing. I don’t know how you guys hang out here your whole life!” she says with a little more enthusiasm in her voice. She elbows him in the ribs and Sweet Pea holds back another flinch.

“Don’t knock Riverdale, okay?”

“I miss the city, I miss the hustle and bustle!” she carries on with her hands in the air and sense of freedom in her voice. He wonders just how much she really misses Chicago and if maybe, her animation is all for show. Everytime she even refers back to the city, there’s a sense of longing. He has a slight shame building in him because how the fuck is he picking up all these signs from one conversation with a girl he barely knows?

What the hell is she doing to him?

“But your friends?” he asks. “Don’t they want to come and see you?”

She stops dead. Her hands stop waving and she looks over at him, lying next to her. “I have two friends I miss so much.”

“If you miss them so much, why don’t you see them? Or why don’t they come and see you? If Fangs was in another city, I’d see that fucker so much he’d come home.”

Mika’s mouth opens and closes while she searches for answers. He wonders if she’d even tell the truth or make something up to smooth things over. “I don’t let people in.”

He didn’t have to be told to know that this was true. Through the day, Mika spoke constantly but he didn’t know her any better.

But Sweet Pea accepts that he feels like not knowing anything about her past doesn’t mean he feels like he doesn’t know her on a level that he just can’t put into words.

“Eh,” he says quietly. “Nothing good comes from letting people in,” he reassures her. “Why would you want to be fucked over from others when you’re already being fucked by yourself.”

Mika smiles to the sky. “Something like that.”

“How did you end up in Riverdale?”

Again, the silence falls over them and he doesn’t fight it. This time, she answers a little faster. “I’m taking a year off to try and figure out some stuff.”

“What?”

“Jesus,” she groans, “Are you a toddler who needs to question everything?”

Sweet Pea groans. “I honestly thought we were having a moment there,” he complains and jokes at the same time. “But you want to be so vague ass on everything.”

“I’m just going through some stuff,” she says quickly.

“So you’ve told me,” he says with a roll of his eyes. “We all go through shit, remember?”

“Using my own words against me,” she almost snaps. “Well played, dude.”

It’s palpable the silence this time.

The river seems to pick up as they lay outside. Time passes so slowly when they lay in a silence that keeps Sweet Pea’s heart steady. “Do you want to talk about your shit?” he asks and before he can feel stupid for even letting those words spill from his mouth she turns to look at him again.

“One day,” she replies. “Maybe.”

He puts his hands on his face. Spilling everything that he had tried to bury was not his intention but part of him was forcing it all out. “Sometimes I don’t know where my life is heading.”

Mika seems taken aback at first, but the concern in her eyes seems to make Sweet Pea feel a little better. “I know what you mean.”

He has a panic pulsing through him that he can’t ignore. Having voiced his biggest fear, he felt so stripped to the bone. “My Nan deserves more than what I can give her,” he says with a laugh that’s as venomous as how he feels. “I’m not proud of the things I do. I’m not proud of the fucking scars and the beatings. I fucked up a kid the other day so bad, Fangs had to tell me to stop.”

She sighs and her eyes close again as if she was searching for a peace that Sweet Pea was already feeling. He wants to give it to her but he feels she’s so closed off. “Sometimes it’s like that. But you’re not a bad person. And the fact that you can even comprehend what’s happening around you is a huge step.”

He chuckles. “Are you a therapist?”

“No,” she smiles. “But I should probably see one.”

He rolls on his side to watch her. This time, he doesn’t try and hide it. “You don’t get tired of being so guarded?”

“You don’t get tired of asking me questions?”

“I just want to get to know you,” he says quietly.

Mika frowns. “You will.”

“When?” he presses again. “Tell me how you ended up here, tell me about your family.”

“There’s nothing to tell!” Mika says with a snap and tension in her neck. Sweet Pea can see her fists are clenched and a tightness in her jaw.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles, wishing he could take it all back. “I didn’t mean to piss you off, I swear.”

Hair falls into Mika’s eyes and Sweet Pea holds back at first but then reaches out, his long fingers hovering in front of her. She quickly jerks back and goes to hit his hand away but he pulls back. “Hey!” she says quickly, eyes growing wider.

Sweet Pea sucks in air through his teeth, shaking his head. “Shit, no, Mika!” he says, panic in his voice. “I wasn’t going to hurt you!”

Slowly again, he reaches out to brush the hair behind Mika’s ear and she sinks into it, letting him barely touch her. “Sorry,” she says weakly. “I just… I know I’m kinda touchy-feely, but sometimes I just kinda…”

“Don’t worry about it,” he says in a breath. He holds his hands up to her. “Wont ever use these ever again, I promise.”

Mika gives him a weak smile again before rolling onto her back and closing her eyes. “Thanks for all of this,” she whispers. “Just please promise that for tonight, you wont ask anymore questions.”

“Shouldn’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“Well fucking keep it, Sweety,” she snaps.

Sweet Pea smiles to himself. “Alright, I promise. But only because you might kick my ass.”

“Change the ‘might’ to a ‘will’.”

“As if I’m going to admit that a girl can kick my ass, god damn, I’m not stupid.”

“Do you ever stop talking? When I met you, I didn’t even know you were capable of talking.”

Sweet Pea groans. “You’re actually fucking killing me right now, woman,” he says. “Do you want me to take you home?”

“No,” Mika answers with a sigh. “Drop me off to FP’s soon and I’ll get home from there.”

At this moment, he doesn’t bother arguing.

All Sweet Pea could think of was that it meant a little more time with the girl he couldn’t figure out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aubrey, of course, the creator of our #aesthetic


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Typical drinks and pool at the Wyrm lead to FP mentioning that Sweets has asked him about her history. In typical Mika fashion, she runs. Avoidance is her current tactic, but Sweet Pea tracks her down at Thistlehouse. Will he apologize and earn forgiveness, or will he let his ego win and lose her again?..

_**Chapter Four** _

* * *

 

__

Sweet Pea lives in an ignorant bliss that seems to vibrate whenever he thinks of Mika. Weeks go by where she seems to be the only unwavering thing that exists on his frequency.

But when he strips it back, she might be his steadfast, but he didn’t know anything about her. Yet, he knew everything.

She asks him questions like why is he so quiet? Where has he been? Was he okay? The same questions asked back usually end dead. Right now was nothing different. He knew she wasn’t okay. That was it.  “You didn’t have to fight my battles for me, Sweety,” Mika says quietly, linking her arm in his. “I’m a big girl.”

Sweet Pea rubs his face with his free hand, the one that’s split and angry red for her. For the Serpents. A sign that he would do anything just to feel a little something. He closes his eyes, “Mika,” he murmurs. “I’d fight every battle for you. You’re one of us,” he says with a breath. He holds back other things like he feels like he’s known her for so long but doesn’t quite get her.

But he wants to.

She smiles and rests her head on his shoulder as they continue down the road towards the clubhouse. “I know you would, Sweet Pea,” she says with a loud sigh. “Because you’re the best ever. You’re the epitome of ride-or-die.”

His heart pulses on the word. And his veins stiffen, his arteries tighten.  _ Because he’s the best ever _ . He feels her breath on his skin and the way her hair drapes on his shoulder, her skin is on his skin and her hand is tangled up with his but he keeps paused. Because friends don’t feel like this, he knows. Friend’s don’t feel like pause mode and so high he’s in the air. “Baby,” he says in a breath. “You make me do bad things.”

“You’re a big boy, you make your own decisions,” Mika says with a roll of her eyes. “Don’t go around passing the blame, that’s an ugly trait.”

Mika’s face turns serious and she lifts her head off his shoulder, she keeps her arm linked in his and her fingers wrapped in his hand but she bites her lips, dark eyes and a heavy frown. Sweet Pea knows that what Mika doesn’t realise is lately, he’s been hanging onto her every word like it was some kind of addiction. Most words out of Mika’s lips have been etched into his mind but he doesn’t think too much on it.

But the whole of fucking  _ Southside _ does.

“I don’t like being watched,” she mumbles against his shoulder. “I don’t like the attention.”

“We just want to make sure you’re okay,” he says loudly, pulling her hand so she jerks back closer to him. “Don’t worry about it so much.”

She doesn’t seem convinced. “I was watched all the time when I was back home and now sometimes I get scared I’m going to do something wrong.”

“What do you mean?” he asks. Sweet Pea knows that at their age, she shouldn’t be thinking like this. It’s ageing and heavy in their world but they should be light and free. He quickly thinks about what it must feel like to have a normal life, parents. Maybe it’s easier on the Northside. But his Nan always talks about the cards they were dealt and how they have to live with them.

“Nothing…” Mika says slowly. “But this is the way it’s always going to be, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” he shrugs, “Maybe it is?” he watches her face brighten, his heart starts beating properly again. He’s high for making her smile.

She slaps his chest and pretends to kick at his shins. “Geez, what a way to make me feel like shit, Sweety,” Mika pulls her bag up again and grabs Sweet Pea’s hand, pulling him along. “You’re just lucky we always walk together because it’s tradition or I might feel like ditching your sorry ass.”

“Tradition?” he laughs, “Since when?”

“Since now,” she laughs. “Come on, traditions start somewhere, right?”

Sweet Pea can feel her changing the subject but he lets her. “Can I ask you something?”

She kicks a rock across the road. “One question,” she hums.

He takes a deep breath. “Did you have a boyfriend before you came here?”

She groans out loud and doesn’t brush hair out of her eyes. “You really want me to ditch your sorry ass, don’t you?”

“No!” he argues. “I… I’m just trying to get to know you, Mimi.”

“Next question or I’m ditching your sorry ass.”

Sweet Pea looks at his fingers wrapped up in Mika’s and he feels like maybe he shouldn’t have a burning in his palm or how his hand feels like the weight of the ocean on his back. She’s right, this is tradition now. But even with tradition, Mika’s hand in his feels in between satin and handcuffs. A lifetime made out of weeks. “You can’t ditch my sorry ass-”

“So you admit your ass is sorry?” she challenges.

Sweet Pea feels like he’s on his knees right now. “I’m not sorry for trying to get to know you, Mika,” he says with a small smile on his lips. Mika looks down at the ground and he feels her grip loosen on his arm; before he can even ask, her entire mind was in the expression on her face. “What’s wrong?”

Mika clears her throat and looks over to Sweet Pea, sliding her hand back down to his hand, pulling it up with her fingers linked in his. “This,” she says quietly with red, angry knuckles burning in the sun. He wonders why his chest feels tight and his hat feels heavy on his head, his jaw pulses because he knows why his knuckles are angry red and still pulsing for another hit. Because he paid the price for Southside. She takes a deep breath and she puts his hand back down but she keeps her linked in it. “This shit is conditioned in us since we were kids - it was the same when my dad was around. It’s weird, don’t you think?”

Sweet Pea feels his heart and anger occupying the same space in their intertwined hands. That pulse in his jaw seems to be going harder and harder and he wonders if it would be hard to give that idiot Sammy the Ghoulie another hit. “This is the first time I’ve heard you mention your dad.” He thinks quickly about what the best thing to say would be but he can’t think through the tears that he can almost see forming. “Don’t cry.”

“I’m not,” she says, shaking her head, making her long hair fly everywhere. “Big girls don’t cry, Sweet Pea.”

He laughs quietly. “I thought we established that you’re not a big girl, I’m bigger.”

“So you’re a girl, huh?” she teases.

He laughs and shoves her away, feeling their hands tighten as their bodies move apart but he pulls her close. When Mika laughs, who says that it’s not as sunny on the Southside?

He lets her drop it and sway the conversation, feeling like she’ll let him in when she’s ready.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Fangs is messy shots on the countertop as Sweet Pea tries to hold his best friend up. “Bro,” he groans, snatching a shot glass out of Fangs’ hand. “You need to go to bed.”

Fangs rolls lazy eyes and downs a half a spilled shot. “You’re not my mom,” he slurs. “Stop telling me what to do.”

Mika laughs and places a steadying hand on Fangs’ shoulder. “Listen to Sweet Pea,” she warns. “Or I’ll kick your ass.”

Fangs looks to Toni for back up but she doesn’t give in, just shrugging her shoulders at Fangs. “Don’t look at me,” she tells him. “I know she’ll kick your ass.”

Mika just smirks at Fangs and he gives a frustrated sigh, “You know, Mika,” he starts slurring again, “Before you came around, these guys used to claim being badasses… now they’re scared of you.”

Sweet Pea looks over to Mika and gives her a grin that just earns him an entitled smirk in return, “Fangs,” Mika starts. “Treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em keen they say.”

Sweet Pea sips at a warm beer when Mika goes over to the pool table to talk to Jughead and Betty. “How long has this idiot been drinking for?”

“Hey!” Fangs snaps back. “That idiot is standing right here.”

“Since 10,” Toni says, placing a hand on Fangs cheek making him jerk back. “Veronica was here with her mimosas.”

Sweet Pea shakes his head. “Mimosas, Fangs? What the fuck happened to you, bro?”

“What happened to you?” Fangs argues back. “Ever since you fell in love, you’ve been a little twitchy.”

Toni’s jaw drops and she looks away, hiding a giggle but Jughead slowly makes his way over, pulling his beanie down his head. “Did I just walk into something I shouldn’t have?”

Fangs steps uneasily from foot to foot, another drink being taken from his hands this time by Jughead. “Sweet Pea’s in love,” he mumbles. “He’s ditched me.”

Jughead grins and gives Sweet Pea a wink, “Betty and Mika seem to be getting along…”

“I’m not in love!” Sweet Pea snaps a little too quickly. Sweet Pea can feel his blood boiling. “Jughead,” he says, trying to keep the hint of begging out of his voice, “Do I look like I have time to fall in love?” Fangs snorts out loud and Jughead scratches the back of his neck, trying to hide his amusement but it wasn’t working. “Toni! Back me up!”

Toni just shrugs and blows Sweet Pea a kiss, “Look, this shit happens -”

Sweet Pea cuts her off. “This is ridiculous.”

“We have no control over these things…” Jughead says slowly.

“What is this? An intervention? We spend a lot of time together, I know that but it’s your guys fault because you don’t ever spend time with her!”

“I do!” Toni replies, shock on her face.

“Yeah because you’re a girl,” Sweet Pea says with a shrug.

Toni shakes her head. “Wow, you are an asshole.”

“This shit isn’t funny,” Sweet Pea mumbles. “I don’t know why the fuck you think I’m in love with her because I spend time with her, if that were true I would have been in love with Toni over anyone else.”

Toni punches Sweet Pea in the stomach. “I’ve never hated you more than I do right now.”

“I’m just trying to get to know her, it’s not my fault she’s private - if she wants to get in with us, we have to get to know her.”

“How about instead of asking me and dad for information, you just ask her? Or are you too shy?” Jughead says.

“Shit, Sweet Pea,” Toni chuckles. “Even Jughead’s taking stabs at you.”

“It’s because you look like an idiot when you stand in front of Mika and you freeze every time, that’s like Love 101,” Fangs adds quickly.  Sweet Pea punches him on the shoulder. “Ouch! Dude!”

Sweet Pea folds his arms and leans against the wall. “You guys suck; do you know that?” he moans. “I don’t know what you guys are talking about.”

Toni shoves Sweet Pea’s shoulder before taking a step back. “We get it, you were obviously taken aback by her intense beauty,” she teases with a wink. Fangs smirks and Jughead laughs. “And now you’ve gotten to know her a little better and it’s changed.”

Sweet Pea feels his face creeping up hot and he throws his hands in the air. “Laugh all you want, I’m not gonna deny she’s hot…”

“So it’s true then? You were taken aback?” Jughead asks. “Oh Sweets.”

Sweet Pea throws his hands in the air. “I wasn’t taken aback!” he yells at his friends behind him. “But I’m not fucking blind! And you guys must be dumb to think I didn’t see she was pretty! Ugh!” he groans. “This has nothing to do with anything, can you guys just shut up for once?”

The group hushes when Mika comes back over, swinging a pool cue between her fingers with one hand and patting Jughead on the head with the other one. “How Betty puts up with your sadness is beyond me, that girl is the definition of a ray of light.”

Mika leans on the bar next to Sweet Pea and he can feel Jughead’s eyes on him. “Do you want to get out of here?” he murmurs.

Mika raises an eyebrow. “You think it’s a good idea to leave Fangs out here? He looks like he’s about to pass out.”

Sweet Pea inhales deeply and rubs his eyes. “Toni can babysit him,” he replies, leaning in closer to whisper in Mika’s ear. “I could honestly just do with a blunt and a burger…”

She gives him a sugary smile and leans against his shoulder. “My two favourite things.”

Sweet Pea swings his keys around his index finger when he sees FP making his way over. “Can we have the cue back, Mika?” he asks. “You look like you could kill someone with that, or are you planning on joining in, kiddo? Let’s hope you have better pool skills than your old man.”

She hands the cue over before saying; “Sweets and I were on our way out so I’ll be back later to show you my skills.”

FP booms. “You and Sweets, huh? You already got him wrapped around your finger. He can’t stop asking about you.” He elbows Sweet Pea in the ribs while Sweet Pea groans internally. Another person to add to the list of people out to get him.

Mika pauses and Sweet Pea can almost hear her mind ticking. He watches her fists clench and her jaw tense as she fakes a smile to FP. “I gotta go, I just remembered I have something going on.”

She moves so quickly, Sweet Pea barely has time to register that she’s out the door. He shoves his keys in his pocket before starting off in a run after her.

He’s out the door just as quickly as she is and Sweet Pea sighs in frustration before pushing past her. “Stop following me,” Mika mumbles.

He makes it out to the front steps of the Wyrm but he hears the door slam against the wall again and the sound of shoes on the pavement. “Hey!” he starts. “Turn around!”

Sweet Pea stops in his tracks, not expecting her to stop too but she does and his heart lets up. “What?” she calls back.

“Did I do something wrong, Mimi?”

Mika’s eyes darken but she smiles sweetly, her eyes and lips telling him two completely different stories. She moves a little closer until she’s looking him dead in the eye. The movement in itself of her getting closer throws Sweet Pea almost and he hesitates a little before taking a step back. It’s only then when he realises her eyes are a lighter brown than usual, she wears scuffed, red Docs and her jeans are ripped at the knees. Mostly he notices how her smile doesn’t falter and her chest rises and falls before she speaks again. “Firstly, don’t call me Mimi -” she almost shouts, hair flying everywhere.

“Well don’t call me ‘ _ Sweety _ ’ -”

“Secondly,” she cuts off again, “If you’re going to be an asshole constantly, try doing it a bit better? And thirdly, stop trying to dig for dirt on me!”

“I’m not  _ digging _ for dirt!” he groans, hands in his hair. “It’s just that every time I think I’m getting to know you, you shut down!”

The air stands still as they watch each other. Her dirty Docs scuff in the dust and he can almost see the guard she wears building higher and higher in front of her. “If you have questions, don’t ask any-”

“Anyone else?” he snaps back. “Every single time I try and ask you anything, you shut me down. You’re not doing yourself any favours, baby.”

“Don’t call me baby, either!” she hisses. He throws his hands in the air again and she jerks back, “Don’t put your hands near me!”

“I wasn’t!” he argues, “You’re just so frustrating!”

She puts her hands up and takes a step back. “Just… don’t. Just go, I’ll stay here.”

Sweet Pea sniggers as he kicks his boot in the dirt, unsure of where to look. He knew this was stupid. She was standing at the front of the Whyte Wyrm, yelling out to him.  _ Un-fucking-believable _ , he thinks, but she still stands in front of him with her hands on her hips. “Whatever you say, Mimi,” he drawls, making his way closer to her, standing at the bottom of the steps but she still looks down at him from the top. But even with him standing there looking up at her, she keeps her smile on and makes herself taller.

She doesn’t wait for his reply. Instead he’s stuck there standing outside alone as Mika walks back into the Whyte Wyrm, slamming the door behind her.

He stands on the bottom step, jaw dropped, face burning and feeling like a complete idiot all over again. But it had been a long time since he had felt anything at all, and it all came from the new girl on the Southside.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Fangs shows no love when he leaves Sweet Pea high and dry standing out the front of Thistlehouse. Fangs didn’t even have the balls to pretend like he was going to back his best friend up when he was going up against Toni and Cheryl. “Fucking bastard,” he mutters under his breath as he watches Fangs ride away.

He barely gets his fist to the door when it swings open, Cheryl’s trademark smirk evident on her face. “Barely crawling in on your hands and knees, BFG - watch your head when you come in,” she says, spinning on her heels. “We have standard sized door frames around here.”

Sweet Pea groans as he follows Cheryl in, “What does Toni use then?” he mumbles. “The fucking cat flap? Must be hard for her to reach the standard height door knobs…”

Cheryl turns to look at Sweet Pea with a look of astonishment. “Don’t let her catch you saying that.”

“Or what?’ he scoffs, not sure where to look. One of the living rooms alone was bigger than his whole house and he’d never get used to the fact no matter how many times he had been here. “She’ll beat me?”

Cheryl shrugs as she sits on one of the sofas that makes him feel like he’s part of one of Nan’s soaps. “She made me swear not to beat your ass so I’m assuming she’s keeping the privilege for herself,” she sips at a cherry cola obnoxiously as Sweet Pea tries to unfold himself on a seat next her. “Please, enlighten me on why you’re here? I didn’t take you for the dumb one. I always reserved that right for Fangs.”

Sweet Pea screws his eyes shut and rubs his face. “Damn, you are one difficult person to talk to, aren’t you?” he groans.

Cheryl smiles sweetly again. “Quite like you and how you refused to actually talk to the person you’re trying to get to know -”

“I’m sorry that I asked FP for information, I can barely communicate with Mika because she’s so closed off -”

Cheryl cuts him off again. “Communication is funny like that, isn’t it?” she snaps quickly. “Because general rule of thumb is that if you want to get to know someone, you ask that person. Not the whole of Riverdale. Call Archie while you’re at it, you never know just how much he might know about Mika even though he’s never met her, I have his number right here -”

“Cheryl!” Sweet Pea snaps back. “If I wanted to get lectured I would go and talk to Jughead, Jesus fucking Christ.”

Cheryl seems ten different kinds of smug as she keeps sipping in her cherry cola but Toni walks into the living room and Sweet Pea keeps himself from leaping off the seat to grab his best friend. He stands slowly but before he can get all the way up, Toni’s hand shoots out to smack the backside of his head. “Ah!” he moans, “Fuck, T!”

“I warned you,” Cheryl says with a smirk.

Toni rolls her eyes and stands in front of Sweet Pea with her hands on her hips. “I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you sometimes!”

“The air is thinner all the way up there, baby,” Cheryl chimes.

Sweet Pea’s jaw drops and he shakes his head. “I literally came here to see Mika, not get attacked by you two.”

Toni whacks him again. “Don’t talk. Just listen.”

Sweet Pea doesn’t argue, he just slinks further in the seat and rubs the back of his head again, worried about what was coming next. He feared these girls more than FP himself. “Fine, listening.”

Toni’s face softens. “Where’s Fangs?” she asks. “He should have come too, I needed to talk to his ass as well.”

“He pissed off as soon as he realised both mom one and mom two were home,” Sweet Pea answers cautiously.

“No kid of mine would be so freakishly big,” Cheryl adds.

Sweet Pea holds back a laugh. “Please, let me see her,” he begs. “I need to fix everything, I fucked up.”

Toni sighs. “She’s hurting, Sweets. She’s really been through it and she doesn’t always know how to deal with it.”

“So?” he asks. “I can’t see her?”

Toni throws her thumb over her shoulder, “Come on, I’ll show you to her room. I just wanted you to know.”

Sweet Pea gets up, cautious about another hit but Toni pats his shoulder instead and he follows her down the hall and to a bedroom. 

Sweet Pea goes to open the bedroom door, but it slams straight in his face. He tries again, and it slams, one more time, he thinks, but his hand is wavering, and his jaw is tightening, he opens it again; it slams. He hears Mika on the other side, her palm on the door, he knows. He leans his head on the door, putting his ear to it to listen inside. “Baby,” he calls. “I just want to talk to you.”

Sweet Pea wants to get in there, take her in. He’s desperate and needy and his nails scratching on her door was not close enough. It would never be close enough; he feels it in his goddamn marrow.

He’s fucked up, screwed it up. He hates himself a little more because she’s pissed off at him and that’s like whip splitting the skin on his back. “Mika,” he calls again, swallowing spit. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to do this…”

Sweet Pea hears Mika move from the door and he almost rips it off its hinges as he rushes to get in, but he’s stopped in the door frame and she raises an eyebrow as she stabs a pointed nail on his chest. “If you come in here, you leave Southside outside,” she hisses, shaking the collar of his jacket. “This isn’t about Southside versus Mika because none of you seem to know how to keep anything to your damn selves. If you want to know anything, it’s between me and you.”

Sweet Pea shrugs the jacket off his shoulders immediately, not even looking back, throwing his jacket on the floor in the doorway behind him.

Mika spins on her bare feet, she’s wearing short shorts and denim on denim, hair out, but she seems smaller without her guard up and Sweet Pea can’t help but run his dry tongue against his lip and keep all of her close. He wants to protect her with everything he has. He feels he’s been waiting for her for so long, he’s so fucking close to being sated. He finds his breaths are shallow when Mika’s mad at him and he holds in a cocky smile. He throws his thumb behind him. “Left Southside outside,” he tells her. “You gonna give me a smile or what, baby?” He sighs. “In all seriousness, you’re going to have to let someone in some day. Someone more than Toni and Cheryl.”

“I like my circle small,” Mika fakes a smile. “What are you doing here?” she asks him. 

He swallows down spit, looks down at his feet as his socks slide on the wood, and he knows he’s fucked up and he’s going to pay for it. He’ll pay whatever price she makes him, he’ll scratch in the dirt, kill a man, he’d do anything for her to be happy with him again. “I’ve come to say sorry,” he says strongly. “It’s actually fucking me over how much I can’t get you out of my head …”

Mika is small against the bed. Tucked up precious tight in the corner, pillows surrounding her. She pulls up a pillow and clings to it, tucking her feet under her body. “I haven’t let anyone get this fucking close to me in so long, Sweet Pea and it’s scaring the shit out of me.”

He takes a step forward before taking two back. Holding his hands up in surrender. “You don’t have to be scared of us, Mika. Southside wouldn’t ever do anything to you.”

“It’s not Southside,” she murmurs. Staring at the floor in front of Sweet Pea, she doesn’t meet his eyes. “It’s you.”

He lets the words sit in the air, forcing his jaw to unclench but his heart races so hard, he wonders if it will come out of his chest. “Mika,” he says softly. “I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you,” he replies weakly, wondering just how bad she thinks he is. “Whatever I’ve done in the past, whatever I do with the Ghoulies, that shit isn’t me.”

He steps closer to the bed and lets his legs rest on it as he lets himself unravel a little. Mika’s eyes water a little with each part of him getting closer to her. “I don’t trust anyone, Sweet Pea. I can’t.”

Sweet Pea sits on the edge of the bed, looking away, trying to catch his breath. He feels nervous, he could feel it sitting high up in his chest. Part of him wanted to just hold her. Wish all this uncertainty away but he knew he couldn’t. Things had to be on her terms, he knows it. “I want to help you, you know,” he takes a deep breath. “This kinda shit isn’t easy. Trying to sort through shit isn’t easy but…” he pauses for a moment. “But, I don’t know, I’m not good with words but I know that I just get you… and I want to help.”

He feels her shift on the bed and he doesn’t let himself breathe. “Can I trust you?”

Sweet Pea turns and gets off the edge of the bed, making his way slowly to the corner she was sitting in on a pile of red pillows. He gets on his hands and knees as he crawls next to her. “Do you trust me?”

Mika’s smile is easy as she grabs his hand, welcoming him in. “You really like Aladdin, don’t you?” He doesn’t answer as he sits down next to her, crossing his legs and staring at the wall.

They let the silence wash over them when Mika plays with the fraying rips of her shorts. “We don’t have to talk if you don’t want to,” he mutters.

Beats echo through the room before Mika inhales deeply. “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted him the moment I met him.”

Sweet Pea stops, looking over to meet Mika’s eyes. “Who?”

“My ex. The reason I’m like this.”

“Oh.”

She clings on tighter to the pillow she was using as her physical guard and licks her lips. “My mom and dad didn’t like him. That should have been the moment I realised I really shouldn’t have trusted him but I was such a fucking dumbass back then, I cringe every time I think about it.”

Sweet Pea’s chest feels constricted, it was almost as if he knew exactly what she was about to say, like he knew the story already. His ears start burning and he can feel an anger building. “We’ve all done dumb shit in the past, Mimi.”

“Nah,” she laughs without humour. “He was a bad guy, not in the sense of doing bad shit. He was a terrible human being. You know the cliche, there wasn’t an ounce of good in that guy.”

Sweet Pea forces himself to let go of the tension in his hands. “Is he the reason why you’re here?”

“Yes.”

The air thickens as he takes steadying breaths. “Don’t tell me he hurt you.”

Mika’s eyes darken. “For the most part, the blessing is that I can block out chunks of my past. But there’s things I’ll never forget,” she whispers. “Like how he would look at me as if he owned me. How he would just flip on me and get mad. He hated me around his boys. I’d pay for it later on if I ever said anything to him out of line in front of his friends.”

Sweet Pea looks at Mika, truly letting her sink into him. She had a seriousness in her eyes but it was almost as if she had blanked out. Whatever lack of feeling she had in her own being, he was making up for it. Her words were cutting him, the heaviness on his shoulders seemed to weigh him down. “What happened?” he asks automatically. Part of him not actually wanting to know, the other part desperate to find out so he could find out who this guy was.

She flexes her hands in front of them, looking at her nails to keep herself busy. “He was always too rough but I don’t know, sometimes I thought I deserved it. I was only 17 when he attempted to drive me through a wall,” she says with an out of place smile. “I may have been 17 but my dad bought me up Southside and FP’s right, I could kill someone with a pool cue.”

Sweet Pea’s eyes widen. “You killed him?”

“No!” she says, wiping a stray tear away before sniffing. “All I had to get my hands on was a mop handle and my own strength.”

He sighs with relief and he can’t hide the sheer amazement in his voice. “You killed him with a mop handle.”

“I didn’t kill him!” she says quickly. “He ended up in hospital for a month and luckily dad and FP could still get me out of any charges thanks to connections… but there’s always this thing in the back of my mind telling me he’s going to come back. He’ll get me.”

Sweet Pea groans as he moves closer to her, putting his arm across her shoulders. “Mika,” he says softly, feeling her ease in his arms. “You’re strong; freakishly strong,” he chuckles lightly. “I know it, look at me, I’m losing my rep over you.”

Mika lets tears fall under a small smile and curls up tighter. “No you’re not.”

“Jokes aside,” he says seriously. “I’m not going to pretend like I don’t want to murder that bastard, but he’ll never come near you ever again. We’re here to protect you, you’re one of us.”

Mika shakes a little as her tears catch up, falling silently on Sweet Pea’s hand that’s holding hers. “Sometimes I’m so fucking scared that I can’t even fake being a tough ass. And sometimes, that’s all I have. Is pretending to be hard so no one can get through to me and then I moved here and I’m surrounded by everyone who just want to look after me and I’m not used to this. Since my parents died all I’ve got is me and now you’re here and…” she trails off.

Sweet Pea can feel the shift between them. Maybe he wasn’t the only one who felt that since Mika came around, she had forced a change in him. Maybe he had made a change in her too. “I can promise I won’t ever hurt you,” he murmurs. “And I’ll never go away. Unless you want me to…”

She shakes her head. “No, this is good,” she mumbles. “Letting someone in. I gotta let people in sometimes, right?”

Sweet Pea shrugs against her. “If you  _ want _ to, you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

Mika closes her eyes and rests her head on his shoulder. “I think I’ve already let you in and that scares me.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sweet Pea opens the door to his bedroom and kicks three pairs of jeans out of the way of the door and into the corner. Mika pulls Sweet Pea’s jacket tighter on her body as she kicks off her boots. He wishes that he had tidied up even a little before she walked in the house but she was too quick in entering, insisting she wanted to lay down. “Home sweet home and all that shit,” he mumbles. “It’s not much but it’s mine and I love it.”

His mismatched bedding had never seemed so outdated and his Led Zeppelin poster was half falling off the wall  next to Roger Waters which was a gift handed down from his dad but Mika still walked around, touching everything, reading the card from Fangs that he had given him for his 10th birthday and the photo of Sweet Pea and Toni in diapers being held by his dad that was on his bedside. “I haven’t been in an actual room for so long… does that make sense?” she asks. “Like a room that’s part of a home. I love Cheryl, but the room I was sleeping in felt kinda like a crypt.”

Sweet Pea smiles to himself. “This is the only home I’ve ever lived in.”

“I like it,” she says, playing with the hem of his denim jacket hanging on a chair.

He throws the blanket over the bed and tries to tidy the pillows at least a little. “That jacket was my dad’s.”

“My dad has one too,” she replies, sitting on the bed with a yawn. “I think they knew each other from back in the day.” She slips her legs under the blanket and closes her eyes instantly. “Are you sure your Nan said I could stay?” she asks, voice dropping a little. “I don’t want to stay if she’s not okay with it.”

“Yeah,” he lies. “Of course, she said it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. We all get sick of T and Cheryl.”

“Good.”

He waits for her to fall asleep before slipping out of the bedroom and walking into the lounge. Sweet Pea lets his shoulders ease as he sits on the couch, not even taking his shoes off. “Shoes off, Sweet Pea,” Nan says.

Sweet Pea swallows loudly and closes his eyes, wishing that Nan had been asleep. “Sorry,” he says, bending down to undo his laces. “It’s been a long day.”

Nan shakes her head and walks over to Sweet Pea, ruffling his hair. “Do you think that your grandmother came down in the last rain?” she says before kissing his head.

“What do you mean?”

“There’s a very tired looking girl in your bed, Sweet Pea. And she doesn’t look like Toni.”

Nan raises an eyebrow as she sits across from Sweet Pea. He could tell she was waiting for his answer but he couldn’t lie to Nan because she could read him like a book. He tries to avoid her gaze but he can’t. “It’s just Mika, Nan.”

“I know who she is,” Nan answers. “FP gave me a heads up. I haven’t seen her dad since he was last in Riverdale, he would have been about your age.”

“You knew him?”

Nan rolls her eyes. “Boy, I know everyone.”

“She’s been crashing with Toni and Cheryl but I think she needed a break.”

“You’re more intuitive than you let on.”

“You’re not mad then?” Sweet Pea asks, trying to keep a grin in.

“If she needs a break, that’s fine with me,” Nan answers. “But you’re sleeping out here tonight.”

“Okay, got it,” he says, pulling the quilt over him.

Nan stands up and turns off the lights in the lounge, “Goodnight, Sweets.”

“Night, Nan.”

Just as she was about to walk out of the room, she turns around, “Oh, and Sweets?”

“Yes?” he groans.

“For the love of God, please don’t hurt this girl.”

Sweet Pea slaps a hand to his face. “It’s not like that.”

“Hmmm,” she replies. “You couldn’t lie to me if your life depended on it.”

Sweet Pea closes his eyes again. Nan was right, he couldn’t lie to her. He hates wearing his heart on his sleeve.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We would love some feedback if possible, this is our first time writing an original character so we're in this blindly at the moment. Love you all!


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sweet Pea and Mika continue their friendship, she’s finally opening up and he’s devouring all the pieces of her she’s willing to share. Will they finally claw their way out of the friendzone or just keep existing so close, yet so far out of each others orbits…

_**Chapter Five** _

* * *

He waits on cloud nine and it’s only a matter of time before he feels the expanding in his chest. Sweet Pea waits in summer sun for it to heat him up but it’s not as sunny on the Southside, his mind made sure he knew that. It might not be as sunny on the Southside but she’s dancing on her tiptoes and Sweet Pea’s heart is continually swelling.

She keeps him up in the sky, higher than he’s been before, but Sweet Pea doesn’t ignore the throbbing in his head. He pinpoints every single change in Mika, from guard up, closed off to free in front of him, from short whip-like remarks to open and messy, the way her eyes linger a little longer on his mouth when he talks. He wonders what her lips feel like, he quickly looks away when she meets her eyes with his, swaying with the music.

Mika keeps her bedroom door shut these days, she says she likes her privacy but he’s allowed on the bed and sometimes on the chair in the corner. “Were you watching me, Sweets?” she asks.

He laughs nervously, panic stuck in his rib cage and more nervous flicks of his eyes away from Mika’s legs covered in plaid and the bare strip of skin between the belt buckle and her crop top. “No,” he says quickly. “I-ah-nah.”

She keeps moving, air guitar at her hips, hair flying in the air.

Southside’s weight is heavy on his shoulders. He has that deeply etched metaphorical snake on his back. It’s been there since the day he was born; even at this age Sweet Pea can hear the hisses of the crowd that follows him around. Those constant hisses in his ear. The sound that Southside makes against the cheeks of their enemies. Sweet Pea knows the price of Southside. And he’s seen people pay.

He wonders if he’s paying the price right now, because he’s higher than high as he watches his friend dance in front of him, but he shouldn’t feel this way.

* * *

Jughead Jones holds Sweet Pea’s hand up as some sort of tribute. The look of FP Jones’s pride was so apparent on his face, Sweet Pea did have a tiny bit of pride in himself. But the longer he looks at his hand in the air with cracked, split knuckles and angry red blood, it just made himself feel that way too. Angry, cracked, split. “If it wasn’t for Sweet Pea, we wouldn’t be standing here today!”

FP sniggers and goes back to sipping his coffee, black, three sugars and reads through the newspaper that looks out of place here in the clubhouse. “Looks like you got him good, Sweets. What’d he do?”

Sweet Pea thinks of a string of lies he could tell, and then a string of truths. Sweet Pea can taste the truth on the tip of tongue, burning him, aching in his mind. But Sweet Pea doesn’t want to say it out loud. This was the life that they were going to lead for the rest of their lives, their fathers told them so. Jughead is a born leader. That’s how it is when you’re the next in line for the throne of Southside. Sweet Pea can taste the truth: The Ghoulie paid the price for Southside after calling Toni a Serpent Slut. The sound of Sweet Pea’s fist on the Ghoulie’s jaw was something he would never get sick of.

“Tell dad what happened, Sweet Pea,” Jughead says dropping Sweet Pea’s hand.

FP grins, “Just make sure it was worth it because Serpents bite-”

“- _ Quietly _ ,” Sweet Pea finishes. “I know.”

“You’re not going to get in trouble, are you?” Toni asks, rubbing her hands together.

Sweet Pea knows that Toni more concerned about the noise he might have made in the Ghoulies. But she has nothing to worry about. “It was nothing, T,” he reassures her. “It was just something that came up.” He couldn’t tell his best friend the true reason behind him unleashing.

“You’re not gonna stay?” Toni asks him.

“Going to pick up Mika,” he replies to Toni, giving her a courtesy kiss on the cheek. “Love you guys, have a good day!” he calls out for safe measure.

“Have a good day?” Jughead calls out. “Are you alright?”

Sweet Pea can’t escape the look on Jughead’s face when the Ghoulies were shouting, or the way his body unleashed when they were talking about Toni.

He can’t escape the anger that ran through him.

The look in that Ghoulie’s eyes as Sweet Pea tightened his flannel and swung his right fist, smack, smack, smacking, the crunch of his jaw, the gritting of his teeth, the spit that flew out of his mouth.

Sweet Pea would do it all over again for any of the Serpents.

He’d do anything.

But right now, all he wanted to do was feel a little normal and at this point, the only normality he has is Mika.

* * *

 

“The whole of Southside smells like sweat, body spray and cigarettes,” Mika says, sitting at the outdoor setting at Toni and Cheryl’s.  

“It smells like teenaged boys,” Cheryl agrees. “It’s disgusting.”

Jughead rolls his eyes. “I hate being here.”

Sweet Pea folds his arms and rolls his eyes as Mika meets them. “You’ve never complained at me.”

“Maybe you’re the exception?” she shrugs.

“Maybe you just don’t complain because I drive you around everywhere?” Sweet Pea snaps back.

“Give me your keys and I’ll drive myself then?” she suggests.

Sweet Pea smirks and leans back in his chair. “You wouldn’t be able to handle the Dodge even if you tried.”

“Is that a challenge?” she replies, raising her eyebrow. “Because if I can handle your ass, I can take on the Dodge.”

Fangs audibly swallows and Toni bites her lip, he can see her flicking between Cheryl and Jughead. “Got something to say, Fangs?” Sweet Pea asks.

Fangs shakes his head in a hurry and Jughead pulls his beanie down, a nervous tick that Sweet Pea knows off by heart. “No,” Fangs answers. “Nope.”

Mika smirks on the right hand side and sips at her drink slowly, Sweet Pea knows she’s not a drinker but he enjoys seeing her let loose a little when she’s with Toni and Cheryl. He sips his beer at the same time. “I’m sorry that I bought your baby into it,” she announces at Sweet Pea. “But I can’t back down from a challenge.”

“You’re the only challenge around here,” Sweet Pea mumbles which just makes Mika laugh.

“Was that a fancy way of saying I’m hard work?”

Sweet Pea bites his lip, avoiding her eyes. “You don’t exactly make things easy.”

“Wow,” Mika bites back. “Your passive aggression is remarkable.”

“I’ve been hanging out with you too much.”

Mika shrugs and Sweet Pea can feel all eyes burning through him. “You’re the one climbing into bedroom windows, not me.”

If there was ever a time where Sweet Pea wished he could disappear, it was right now. He could almost hear the jaws dropping on the patio area around him and he glares at Mika. “Fuck me,” he groans.

Toni’s eyes grow and she throws a bottle cap at Sweet Pea’s head. “You’re climbing into what now?!” she snaps.

Sweet Pea can see that Mika knows she’s stepped in it this time but she owns it by saying; “Nothing’s happened, T,” she mutters. “Sometimes we just get in late.”

Toni turns all kinds of maternal as she starts her lecture but Cheryl chimes in with a; “Hang on, but what is this exactly?”

“What is what?” Sweet Pea replies.

Cheryl shakes her head. “Come on, we’re all adults here, right? Are you guys a thing?”

Mika looks from Sweet Pea and back to Toni, gritting her teeth together. “We’re friends…”

“Friends,” Jughead laughs. “Friends dont look at each other like that.”

He lets his friends keep trying to decipher everything, he can’t deal with their nagging. But the look in Mika’s eyes tells him that she wishes they could get the fuck out of here too.

“Yeah,” Sweet Pea sniggers at Jughead. “You would know.” 

* * *

The smoky haze was so thick, Sweet Pea was starting to feel a little claustrophobic. He feels eyes on them as they walk through the crowd, that metaphorical snake on his back hissing louder than ever as they saunter through the Whyte Wyrm and he feels Mika’s confidence grow bigger than ever, with all eyes on her, Mika is  _ God _ and Sweet Pea knows it. She splits away when she sees Betty in the crowd.

Sweet Pea is a cocky kick in the air and a toothpick hanging out of his mouth but he wears that leather jacket as if it’s his goddamn crown, he turns around, scanning the place for Jughead or Toni, anyone to get him out of here and he sees misplaced Louboutins on the floor up ahead, praying to the God of Southside that he could get out just for a moment. Veronica and Archie being here makes it even more of a shit fight for him to stay indoors and in Archie’s presence.

He leans on the bar countertop when he feels a hand tap his shoulder. “Sweet Pea,” Veronica says quietly. “Have you seen Jughead?” 

He notices the quiet tone, and the look Veronica shoots towards Mika and Betty tells him that Veronica is in a hurry. “Ronnie,” he groans. “Don’t do this tonight, shit, woman, you got your jock and blondie here right now.”

Veronica’s lips purse as Sweet Pea feels all kinds of mature and wise when he talks to Veronica. “I just need to talk to him,” she says with widened eyes. 

Sweet Pea screws up his face, folding his arms. “Talking leads to more than talking and I don’t have time to be playing bodyguard.” Veronica slaps his arm and he jerks back, rubbing the spot. “Shit, V!” he groans. 

“Just shut up for a second, please,” she argues, rolling her eyes. But Sweet Pea notices that Veronica finds Jughead in the crowd. “Ill be right back, don’t wait up for me!” she says, patting his back. 

Sweet Pea laughs, “Not doing that tonight, Veronica.” 

He downs a drink and Betty and Mika are still standing in the same spot. He decides to move, hating the crowd a little more now that he was worried for Jughead. “Hey, B,” he says. “Can I borrow Mika for a second?”

“Of course,” Betty says, patting Mika on the shoulder. “I’ve better go and find Archie and Ronnie anyways,” she says with a groan.

Mika smiles at Sweet Pea as she says; “Thank fuck, I was about to suffocate in here.”

He chuckles as he puts his arm across her shoulders. “Too much for you too, Mimi?”

“Way too fucking much… Does Betty ever stop smiling?”

He shakes his head. “Nah, she’s awesome.”

“How the hell does she put up with Jughead?”

“The same way we all do,” Sweet Pea replies. “Let’s go out the back, I’ve got a blunt from Toni.”

The door slams loudly behind them but the muted music continues on as they climb up onto the back of his truck. Mika sighs loudly as she leans on the back window. “This is better,” she says softly.

“Hanging out with me?” he asks.

Mika elbows him. “Being out of that loud ass clubhouse.”

Sweet Pea clutches at his chest. “Oh, that hurt.”

She smiles at him. “And hanging out with you.”

Sweet Pea licks over the blunt before saying; “Damn, you’re starting to fall in love with me.”

Mika pauses and then laughs out loud. “I mean, that’s the word on the street, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, that shit’s crazy. I guess it’s the biggest thing to happen around Southside.”

“Or  _ not _ to happen,” Mika corrects. They both sit in comfortable silence.

Just as Sweet Pea was about to spark up his Zippo, the back door opens again. Betty and Jughead walk out before seeing the other two on the back of the Dodge. “Are we interrupting something?” Betty asks, “Because if  we are, we’ll head back inside?” she asks, throwing her thumb over her shoulder.

“No!” Mika says, waving at them. Sweet Pea drowns down the feeling of telling them to go back inside and instead moves over.

“You guys can join,” he says. “But we’re about to light this blunt so I hope you’re cool with that.”

Jughead helps Betty up and they sit down next to Sweet Pea and Mika. “You guys have the right idea,” Jughead starts. “My dad was trying to challenge Fangs to a shots comp and it wasn’t going well.”

Sweet Pea hands the blunt to Mika. “You do the honours, yeah?”

“Sure,” she says, placing the blunt between her lips. She flicks the Zippo and inhales, letting it take over her. “Betty?”

Betty eyes the blunt and blushes. “I’ve never been high before…”

Sweet Pea looks at Jughead in shock. “Jug!” he groans. “You’ve never got high with your girl?”

Jughead chuckles and looks at Betty, nodding to the blunt. “Take it if you want,” he tells his girlfriend. “There’s a first time for everything.”

Mika nods at Betty. “I mean, I don’t want to be the one to be the bad influence but Jug is right, there’s a first time for everything.”

Betty smiles at Mika nervously and takes the blunt from her. “Here goes nothing.” Betty takes the blunt with all eyes on her and she holds in the smoke as she hands it over to Jughead.

The blunt goes around the circle until they run out. “You okay?” Jughead asks, laughing at Betty.

Betty nods. “You’ve always been my favourite Serpent,” she whispers.

“Who?” Jughead asks, “me?”

“No!” Betty giggles. “Mika.”

Mika’s heavy eyes look at Sweet Pea as he lays relaxed on the truck. “Well shucks,” Mika says with a grin, “You’re awesome too.”

“That cuts like a knife, you know,” Sweet Pea says with his eyes closed. “I always considered you my favourite Northsider.”

Betty can’t control her laughter by this point and Jughead is amused smiles at her. “Imagine how I feel,” Jughead shrugs. “I always thought I was your favourite Serpent.”

“I’m sorry, dude,” Mika teases. “But she loves me more than you.”

“Fine!” Betty says, throwing her hands up in defeat. “I love you all equally.”

“That’s better,” Jughead replies, stretching out his legs. “Do you want to go home soon?”

“And risk the wrath of my mother?” Betty sighs. “Hell no.”

“Your mom will be pissed for you smoking weed, huh?” asks Mika.

“My mom will be pissed regardless. Things aren’t great with her,” Betty says with a frown. “Alice Cooper always finds something to complain about. That’s why I have to crash on Fred’s sofa tonight.” 

“It’s okay,” Jughead reassures. “I’ll pick you up in the morning.”

Sweet Pea doesn’t miss Jughead’s eyes and he doesn’t miss the underlying message in Jughead’s voice. He’d known Jughead so long now, Southside was all in sync. But he leans back, briefly wonders where Veronica is and decides to relax. 

Sweet Pea keeps his eyes closed as he listens to the other three chat, letting the peace take over for just a moment until Mika leans into his ear. “I think these two might be heading off soon… Or so I hope. I kind of want to relax.”

Jughead jumps off the tailgate. “We better go inside,” Jughead tells them. “Let’s go, Betts.”

Betty follows after Jughead and waves to Sweet Pea and Mika left on the Dodge, “See you guys tomorrow?”

“You will!” Mika replies, waving back. She puts her hand in Sweet Pea’s and he briefly looks down at their linked hands. He feels like he might be lighter than light in the passing moments with her skin on his skin. He wonders if maybe she’s keeping him wrapped up tight in her because she’s trying to keep grounded. And, he thinks, for her to be grounded by him must be something huge. Because it’s not often that Sweet Pea feels like he’s rooted in this earth.

They sit in a silence that Sweet Pea believes they’ve been waiting for all day. He feels her let her guard down, one that he’s chipped away at bit by bit. “You’re quiet…” he tells Mika.

She smiles at him. “I don’t have anything to say.”

“You’ve been smiling at me a lot today,” he says slowly. “I’m not complaining…”

She hushes him. “I’m trying,” she says softly. “The trust thing, I’m trying.”

Sweet Pea nods. “Don’t force yourself to,” he says sternly.

“I’m not…” Mika adds gently. “You make it a whole lot easier on me. Even if sometimes I still freak out.”

“Do you want more than this?” Sweet Pea starts, looking at Mika from the side of his eyes cautiously. But Mika reads him easily and she has a small smile playing on those lips he’s wondered about a little too much.

She shrugs and flips his hand to look at his knuckles, tracing patterns on them.”Do you?”

For a split second, Sweet Pea wonders exactly what she means. But he’s snapped out of it when he realises she means more than Southside. “People assume I’m going to be Southside forever,” he answers weakly. “But sometimes I want to get out.”

He hates that he’s put his heart into words. Southside was everything and every part of him but sometimes he wants more than this. More than Southside or Riverdale.

Mika hums as she drags her eyes over his face, he can feel her reading his expressions and every single thing he regrets saying out loud. “Don’t worry,” she comforts. “I won’t tell anyone.”

He sighs with relief and keeps his eyes on her hand again. “I just hate talking in general.”

“Don’t talk if you don’t want to.”

“But I do,” he says honestly. “I do with you.”

She keeps the silence steady. Sweet Pea knows that Mika is just waiting on him. He closes his eyes again to ground him. “People think I don’t give a fuck.”

“About what?” she asks.

“Everything,” he opens up. “I tried so hard at school but it didn’t really get me anywhere. I try hard to get out of Southside but I always just seem to get a little deeper. I want to get out one day, see something. See the world, but that sort of thing doesn’t happen to people like us…”

“Yes it does,” she says, gripping on to his hand tighter. Sweet Pea keeps looking down but Mika reaches across to grab his face, forcing him to look at her. “You can get out if you want to, Sweet Pea.”

“I know,” he mumbles. Mika’s eyes are a light, caramel. He didn’t think of the colour until now but he sees it in the dim light from inside. He closes his eyes.

“There’s got to be more out there, Sweets,” Mika almost whispers.

His mind buzzes, there’s more out there but he knows they shouldn’t look any further than the Southside. “There’s way more out there, Mika,” he tells her honestly. “And one day we’ll get out of here.”

She smiles gently at him and leans her head on his shoulder, breathing deeply, making Sweet Pea match his breaths with hers. “We’ll get out of here?” she asks, longing in her voice. “Move to the Northside?”

Sweet Pea laughs out loud and shakes the entire truck. “Baby, we’ll go further than that, the worlds the fucking limit!”

“The world’s the limit?” he almost hears a gasp in her words. “You really are a romantic.”

“Mika, since I’ve met you, I’ve never had so many dreams,” He says to her. He wonders if she can read his words because he’s on his hands and knees now. “I don’t know how to say it, but it’s like you’ve opened my eyes or something…”

Several beats run through them on the roof of the trailer and a truck sounds it’s horn in the distance. “That was really cheesy, you know?” she murmurs. “But you don’t have to stay Southside.”

“Maybe I’ll go further than that,” he laughs, it’s a lie but right here, right now. It’s as close to the truth that he could  get. Sweet Pea watches Mika’s hair fall into her eyes and he holds back the urge to move it. Lifting his hand before stopping himself. “Can I just…” he says.

Mika nods and he takes it, brushing her hair out of her eyes. “Thanks,” she says softly.

“You don’t need to thank me for being a decent human being,” he mumbles.

She laughs humourlessly. “I guess not,” she replies. “But I guess it just goes to show how fucked up I am.”

Sweet Pea frowns. “Don’t say that, Jesus Christ.”

“We’re both just trying to get through stuff, you and I.”

He nods. “We’ll get there, right?”

“Right,” she agrees. She lays her head on his shoulder again before looking up at him. “Thanks for opening up to me.”

Sweet Pea tilts his head to look at her resting on his shoulder. He’s almost shaking before he even realises what’s happening and the grip Mika has on Sweet Pea’s hand is vice-like. With his free hand, he brushes strands out of her eyes again, soft touches on her skin, but she uses the grip on his hand to bring him a little closer and she leans forward. Sweet Pea can feel his breath stuck, deep down in the bones of him. Unsure of where to move or what to do, he’s noisy breaths and she’s soft lips but his heart slows down, his head tilts and he can almost taste the minty fresh of her chewing gum. “Are you sure?” he murmurs softly almost against her.

The door of the Whyte Wyrm slams against the wall and Jughead steps out with Veronica following behind him. “Fuck!” Sweet Pea groans, resting his head on Mika’s shoulder, fucking cursing Jughead to hell with his timing. Sweet Pea’s still burning from being so close to Mika but she just laughs, patting him on the head as he rests. 

“Bad timing, isn’t it?” she whispers. “Or was it good timing? God knows this could have been a mess.” 

Sweet Pea rolls his eyes to himself as he gets off Mika’s shoulder to look over at Jughead and Veronica, talking to each other in the dark. “I could fucking skin that idiot alive right now.” 

Mika looks Sweet Pea in the eye. “Let me whip out the pocket knife,” she shrugs. “Because honestly, I could too.” 

Sweet Pea can’t hide a grin as he listens to Mika but Jughead and Veronica pause at the door when they realise that Sweet Pea and Mika are still there. “Oh shit,” Jughead says quickly. “I’m just dropping Veronica off at home!” 

“Whatever you say,” Sweet Pea shrugs. 

Jughead and Veronica stand in the distance. “I’m not even gonna ask,” Mika says softly. 

Sweet Pea rubs his face, head resting in his palms. “Please don’t,” he mumbles. “I don’t want to have to explain that shit.” 

“I don’t think it needs explaining,” she muses. “I can read Jughead loud and clear.” Mika exhales loudly and drops her head back down on Sweet Pea’s shoulder. “Want to get out of here?” she asks. “I know a place we could go if you take me to FP’s to get my bike.”

“I’m just going to go and drop Veronica off,” Jughead shouts loudly, trying to convince Sweet Pea. 

Sweet Pea rubs his face and shakes his head, standing up on the back of the truck. “It’s okay,” he calls. “We were just about to head off.”

Mika smiles sweetly at Sweet Pea as she goes to jump back in the truck. “Good timing after all, huh?” she whispers.

Sweet Pea shuts the door behind her and goes to the drivers side, slipping his keys in the ignition. “After I we get your bike, where do you wanna go?” he asks, waving out to Veronica and Jughead as they walk away.

“Let me take you somewhere,” she says. 

“Take me anywhere with you.”

__**  
  
** ****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Leave us some loving?


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mika lets loose and feels free while hosting a party, but things, like usual for Serpents, go awry. With a little help from Veronica, Mika is escapes with Sweet Pea..her weekend might be salvaged after all. What happens when they flee Riverdale and they’re finally able to shed the snakes permanently on their backs?..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love you all for even reading this. The smallest bit of attention makes the biggest impact. We thank you.

 

_**Chapter Six** _

* * *

Sweet Pea watches as Mika skips down the path on the way to the Whyte Wyrm. “I feel like getting out of here.”

Sweet Pea rolls his eyes as he follows behind Mika, eyes watching long legs as she almost dances on concrete. “Jesus, woman,” he laughs. “Can’t you stay in one place?”

Mika reaches into Sweet Pea’s jacket pocket, pulling out the packet of cheap menthols he stole from Jughead last night and pouts, holding out her hand for the lighter. “I know you have one,” she chimes. “Come on, Sweet Pea!”

Sweet Pea bites his lip and digs into his jeans pockets, searching for the lighter and watching Mika’s grin turn up on the right hand side at the same time. He pulls out the lighter from his back pocket flicking it three times waiting for Mika to pull out a cigarette. She places it between her lips and he sparks it up for her, she takes a shallow puff and coughs, left eye closed. “You know what to do with that?” Sweet Pea teases, giving her a wink. “Or are you faking it?”

She kicks his shin lightly and takes another drag before passing it to Sweet Pea who takes a deep breath, blowing  plumes out to the sky, closes his eyes in relief as he feels ease pumping through him. “Jughead would lose his shit if he knew you’d stolen his cigarettes and I don’t think I’m up to beating the shit out of him on your behalf.”

Sweet Pea flicks ash onto the street and it flies in the wind. “Jughead won’t touch me… Toni on the other hand,” Sweet Pea fakes a shudder. “You know those two are tighter than tight.”

Mika laughs as she takes another deep breath. “And Toni to the list of people I won’t beat up on your behalf.”

Sweet Pea pretends to be shocked, clutching at his chest. “Then who would you fight for my honor?” He stubs out the cigarette on the footpath with his boots and keeps following behind the girl who’s dancing a little too much. “You’ve changed since I’ve met you,” Sweet Pea tells her as long hair flies along behind her. He wants to tell her she’s beautiful, but the words just get caught.

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” she rolls her eyes. “Because when I met you I thought you were some crazy hardass and sorry to break it to you, Sweety, but you’re not.”

“I’ve told you,” he mumbles. “You just have me feeling some kind of way…”

The silence hangs a little as he nervous kicks at the ground, refusing to meet her eyes but Mika takes Sweet Pea’s hand and pulls. “I know,” she replies quietly.

“What are we doing tonight?” Sweet Pea asks, switching subject. “Drive in and popcorn?”

Mika slows down, running her fingers through the ends of her long hair and barely meeting his eyes. Sweet Pea can read Mika, there’s a flicker in her eye and smirk on her lips. Sweet Pea briefly tries to figure out how they taste. “I was thinking…”

He groans internally, because whenever Mika thinks, it turns into a fight not worth having. But if he wants to live, if he wants to untie the noose that she was quickly putting around his neck, he was going to have to go along with this. “You’ve been thinking? That’s not good.”

She punches him on the shoulder and moans. “Jughead wants to hang out, Cheryl’s gone god knows where and Veronica wants to party…”

Sweet Pea groans, rubbing his face. “Party?” he sighs. “You’re on your own, Mimi.”

“Don’t call me that!”

“Oh Mimi, don’t be like that,” he continues with wink. He can almost see her jaw tightening, she wants to hit him, he can tell.

“I’m thinking of maybe throwing a party, only a few people, of course!” Sweet Pea knows this isn’t true, Mika doesn’t just invite a few people. She’ll be inviting all of Southside with a majority of the North as well. But right now, there wasn’t much that he wouldn’t go along with. And if Mika wants to throw a party, he’ll be throwing it too.

“Where?”

“The trailer?”

“Whose trailer?”

“Jug’s!”

He closes his eyes as they keep walking. “Fine…” he moans, “But don’t think I’m happy about it. You’re going to kill me one day, Mimi. You’re killing me.”

She seems smug, pouting her lips. “Don’t be so dramatic, Sweety,” she tells him.

He knows she’s right. He’ll be doing anything she wants him to.

* * *

 

There was a stash at Thistle house so big, Sweet Pea knows Cheryl would never notice. But she brushes past him chewing gum loudly and he knows that she has a level of fearless that he can’t match. Her legs are endless as she strolls ahead of him, “Come on, Sweet Pea,” Mika challenges. “I can’t carry all this shit myself.”

He lets the cigarette hang between his lips and he tries to swallow down that feeling he’s getting from watching his newest friend ahead of him. She convinces him that she’s a rum sort of girl, but he doesn’t believe it. She tells him it’s all about the vibe right now. Rum gives her that vibe that she needs. He knows she’s lying, she barely drinks and he’s noticed it on more than once occasion. But he lets her talk herself up while she convinces him that she’ll replace the bottles before Cheryl gets home.

They get a selection of things. Cheap rum that’s Toni’s and Cheryl’s expensive shit. Vodka. So much vodka. A couple packets of Marlboros. He feels the weight of the cigarettes in his pocket and he feels instantly more comfortable, especially when Mika’s hand is in his.

“Let’s go,” she tells him. “Before someone catches us.”

“Let’s stay,” he says, pulling her back towards him. Her hips bump the tops of his thighs and when she ties her shirt the way she has, he can see the bottom of her flat stomach and since when did Mika have lacy bras? “Come on Mika, let’s stay,” he begs her. “Let’s stay here.”

Her look is serious as she flicks between Sweet Pea’s eyes and lips. But all he can concentrate is the swelling feeling at the back of his head and his denim scratching on Mika’s skirt, the way it’s riding up almost with how close they are but he feels they will never be close enough.

He free-falls when he brushes Mika’s hair away and tucks it behind her ear. “You don’t want to stay, Mimi?” he asks amusedly. “Let’s stay here, fuck them. You’ve always said you wanted to go away…”

Mika pushes him away with her elbow and his fingers are loose in her hair, she throws her head back and groans to the ceiling. “How about instead of us sitting here contemplating running away together, you help me with these bottles?”

“Way to ruin a moment,” he argues, tightening his flannel around his hips he grabs two bottles out of her hands. “You want to run away?”

“No!” she snaps. “Don’t play with me. We have a party to throw.”

“I’m not playing,” Sweet Pea grumbles, trying to pull her closer to him again, she gives in, but he can tell she doesn’t want to.

He packs up the vodka and the expensive rum in his bag, lights a cigarette.

He wants to go home, watch TV, listen to Fang’s incessant need to talk.

But instead he’s doing whatever Mika wants.

Because that’s just the way it is.

* * *

 

It was a small gathering of those that Mika didn’t mind being in her zone. But somehow Archie was invited by Jughead and it seemed to piss Sweet Pea of more than usual. Jughead wonders out loud what it would be like to be like Archie. Easy, kind, funny, excitable. To be a puppy. Sweet Pea ignores Jughead’s chatter and watches  Fang’s hurry over with the patch on his back and hands Sweet Pea’s fourth drink. “You want this one?”

Sweet Pea shakes his head and Veronica’s eyes shoot to the door where Betty was exiting. “You look relieved,” Sweet Pea shoots at Veronica. “Early night for Betty, huh?”

Veronica scowls. “Shut up.”

Sweet Pea sniggers and rolls his eyes, spilling the drink a little on the lino floor. “Calm your tits, Veronica,” he says but she ignores him.

“Where’s Mika?” Veronica asks.

Sweet Pea scans the trailer and catches Mika standing in the corner of the living room with Archie. “With Archie,” he points out to the other side of the trailer.

Sweet Pea  looks around the room at the bodies, the trailer is small and trashy but it could fit more people than Sweet Pea and Jughead had thought it would. There were people here that he didn’t recognize. The music blasts his brain so he closes his eyes against the wall. He opens his eyes when Veronica pokes him in the chest, offering him a blunt. He takes it from her and eyes it, “Ronnie…” he starts but she laughs in his face.

“What?” she says, rolling her eyes. “I keep the peace with you for a good reason.”

He takes a hit of the blunt before holding it in, letting it open his veins and slow down the booming in his ears. “Thanks,” he says, watching Mika’s moves slow down with his bloodstream. “I needed that.”

“Mhmm,” Veronica agrees, straightening her skirt around her knees. “You and I both…” she carries off. “You really like her, don’t you?”

Sweet Pea’s  jaw tenses as he prepares to lie to Veronica. “I-ah,” he starts. He gives up. “Yeah…”

Veronica shrugs. “Sometimes you gotta go for it,” she says with eyes hanging on Jughead.

“I really do not believe that you, Veronica Lodge, should be giving me advice.”

She huffs out loud, “I’m going to go and hangout with Archie and Mika, at least they’re fun to talk to.”

Sweet Pea smiles to himself as Veronica walks away. He leans on the trailer wall.

There were too many faces to sort through and that made Sweet Pea feel uncomfortable, Fangs and Jughead lean on the wall, joining him, sorting through the crowd  but people were spilling out of doors and windows, partying on the grass. “You ditched Veronica?” he asks his two friends. “She doesn’t look happy over there,” he says, watching Archie whisper in her ear.

Fangs shrugs and waves a fresh blunt  in Sweet Pea’s face that he almost starts salivating for but just as quickly, his mouth feels so dry, it’s cracking. Mika’s roll of her eyes as she stands next to Archie makes Sweet Pea laugh. “Archie was being a typical Northside dick so we left them to it,” Fangs explains.

“You okay, Jug?” Sweet Pea asks, “That’s what you get for inviting your favorite Northsiders…” no reply from Jughead.

Fangs groans. “Toni pulls all the girls even though she doesn’t want them and all the dudes are always all over her too.”

Sweet Pea snickers and leans back lower on the wall. “She always takes the good chicks, huh?”

“Trust me, you wouldn’t have wanted Cheryl, Fangs. She’s the kind that would kill you in your sleep,” Jughead says flatly.

Sweet Pea holds back a laugh. “You might need to up your game,” he teases. “I’m sure there’s a girl out there who wants a fucked up bad boy, yeah?”

“I’m not fucked up!” Fangs argues.

“You’re not a bad boy either,” Sweet Pea shrugs,.

Fang’s rolls his eyes. “Oh, you got jokes, do you?”

Sweet Pea  nods and Jughead takes a sip of his bottle of beer with one hand, and shakes Fangs with the other.

“Sorry,” Sweet Pea apologizes. “But bro, you don’t have a boy or a girl,” he says to Fangs, “l can’t get  even one girl and Jughead has two. One he jerks off over -”

Jughead covers Sweet Pea’s mouth with his hand. “Jesus Christ, Sweet Pea!”All three of them look out to Mika shaking her head at Archie. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jughead grumbles.

“Veronica was right,” Fangs says, “True love is fucked up, huh?”

“And when did you get all deep and meaningful, Fangs?” Sweet Pea cackles. “What the hell do you know about true love?”

“Ah, I’ve seen you falling in love for the past four months, bro, I’ve seen it in the flesh!”

“I don’t love Mika,” Sweet Pea lies point blank.

Fangs snickers, “Yeah,” he says sarcastically. “And you don’t have a snake on your fucking back.”

They keep chatting, Sweet Pea feeling like he’s not drowning enough in his beer but Jughead and Fangs arguing was enough to make him zone out until he hears Veronica yell out; “ARCHIE!”

The party splits in half but Sweet Pea zooms in on Archie and Veronica in the corner, Mika being weakly held back by Toni.

Sweet Pea calls out, “Hey!” as he starts to storm through the bodies but Jughead is faster when he throws his bottle on the floor. Sweet Pea can feel his heart race and his feet heavy on the sticky lino as Mika taps on Archie’s shoulder.

He feels his brain smacking the insides of his skull and his breath is pushed out of him as he moves people out of the way. Mika draws back her elbow while Sweet Pea watches, stuck behind Jughead, her fist is so quick against Archie’s nose that he could hear the cracking through the entire trailer. “Oh shit!” Jughead says loudly.  

Spit flies and in slow motion, he watches Archie’s teeth jut and people move around him, arms flying, screams. Sweet Pea pushes Jughead out the way to get to Mika but she was already shaking out her hand, licking her teeth, “Don’t you ever say anything about Sweet Pea again!” she says, being pulled away by Veronica.  Mika kicks legs and her face gets lost beneath hair that he can’t tell is hers or Toni’s.

“Mika!” Sweet Pea shouts, trying to keep up with Veronica but people were getting in the way.

He decides to let her go. “What the hell was that about?” Fangs asks.

Sweet Pea can’t help but grin, “I can’t believe she just knocked out Andrews!” he says, unable to hide the surprise. “I didn’t know she had it in her.”

Fangs scoffs. “You didn’t know Mika had it in her? The girl is a freak, bro, she’d kill us all.”

“With her words, maybe. But she swings better than you ever have in your entire life.”

Fangs frowns. “Gee, thanks.”

Sweet Pea watches Archie clutch at his nose while Jughead tries to hand him a tissue. “Wonder what that fucker said to set her off.”

Fangs’ eyes widen and he shakes his head. “Don’t do it, Sweets!”

But Sweet Pea is already striding back towards Archie, cocky grin on his face. “Got you good, didn’t she, Andrews?”

Archie doesn’t even make Sweet Pea’s eyes but he stays sitting with Jughead standing over him. “He’s had enough,” Jughead adds with a roll of his eyes. “Don’t hit him again.”

Sweet Pea’s laugh booms through the trailer. “I don’t think I have to, he’s already been taken down a few notches by Mika. Guess you deserved it, huh, Red?”

Fangs sniggers next to him. “That’s it?” he asks. “No fight?”

Archie stands up silently before pushing past Sweet Pea. Jughead half heatedly tries to call out for his best friend but Archie slams the door behind him. “Where’s Veronica?” Jughead asks Sweet Pea, scanning the trailer. “Is she okay?”

“Saw her take Mika to the bathroom,” he says with a panic. Remembering the blood and the sound of the hit. “I wonder if Mika’s hurt.”

They make their way to the bathroom but just as Sweet Pea gets to the door, it shuts in his face. “Ronnie, let me in! What the fuck happened.”

Blood, all he can think of was the blood.

He can hear Veronica complaining through the thin walls but she cracks the door open a little. “Sweet Pea -”

“Fuck!” he says, trying to push the door open. “Are you okay? Is she okay? There was a fuck load of blood…”

Veronica is almost un-amused and it was starting to make Sweet Pea anxious, “Archie’s an asshole. Mika knows it and she punched him. We’re okay,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “Now go.”

Jughead looks like he’s staying, sitting on the floor outside of the bathroom. “Do you know what happened?” Sweet Pea asks him.

Jughead shrugs. “Archie was saying some shit to Veronica, apparently,” he says with tense fists. “Mika heard, went over and knocked him one,” he laughs nervously.

Sweet Pea can’t help but continue to grin, she could hold her own, he knew that, but he didn’t think Mika would ever hit Archie Andrews. “Amazing,” Sweet Pea smiles.

Jughead laughs and takes off his beanie quickly, squeezing it in his hands. “Archie’s a fucker…”

“He’s also your best friend,” Sweet Pea shrugs, quickly thinking of Jughead’s worry for Veronica but not saying anything. “One day, Jug, the Southside won’t be so hard and you’ll figure out everything. Serpents, friends, relationships…”

Jughead chokes and looks over to Sweet Pea, shock apparent. “Where the hell did Sweet Pea go?” he teases.

Sweet Pea points at the bathroom door, “In there, apparently, in Mika’s fists.”

They both laugh as they wait for the bathroom to open.

They hear the door unlock and the door swings open, Veronica spots them on the floor outside and frowns. “What the hell is this? Bathroom security?” she says, heels tapping  on the trailer floor. “I’m fine, Jug,” she says without prompting.

Jughead clears his throat. “Good,” he says, putting his beanie back on.

They walk away down the other end of the trailer.

The bathroom door is open but Sweet Pea stops himself from walking in, he knocks on the wall and shuts the bathroom door a little, stopping himself from looking inside but open just enough for him to call out; “Mimi, it’s me, can I come in?”

“Come in!” she calls out. “Tell me how the fuck to get stains out of a white shirt.”

Sweet Pea covers his eyes as he steps in. “Tell me you have a shirt on.”

“I don’t.”

Sweet Pea keeps his eyes covered as he feels for the counter. “Let me see how much blood there is, but turn around.”

Mika exhales loudly and laughs, reaching up to Sweet Pea’s hands that were covering his face. “I appreciate it, Sweets, I do. But you can open your eyes. Have you never seen skin before?”

He opens his eyes and watches Mika try and wring out her shirt, hair in her eyes and sports bra on that was too hard for him not to notice. “Let me check your fist first,” he says, gulping at the sight of her shirt. “Jesus, Andrews is obviously a bleeder…”

Mika rolls her eyes and puts the shirt in the sink. “It’s not blood, Sweet Pea. It’s cranberry juice and the fist is fine, my shirt however, is not. And I’ll make him pay for that too.”

Sweet Pea raises an eyebrow at her, slightly amused. “What the fuck did Archie do to make you go full snake on him?”

“Where the hell do I start?!” she says, getting louder. Her eyes grow and her hair flies when she turns to look at Sweet Pea. “It was somewhere between telling V that she didn’t belong here and saying that you’re a prick. Gotta admit. Didn’t really hear what he said about you, didn’t have to…”

Sweet Pea is lost for words and instead stands there, staring at Mika not knowing what to do with his hands. She was beautiful, and if he thought about it, even more so when she was wild and wringing out her shirt. “You protected me. For my honor.”

“Well, not just yours,” she says slowly and carefully. “Don’t get ahead of yourself.”

“Too late,” he laughs. “Already have. You love me.”

“And V as well,” she corrects.

Sweet Pea runs his tongue over his lips, leaning back on the bathroom bench. “You love V but you also love me.”

“So what?”

“I’m going to have to tell Veronica.”

“I love anyone Jughead loves and that means you and Veronica.”

Sweet Pea cringes. “Don’t ever say that Jughead loves me, it makes me feel weird…”

“Shut up!” Mika groans, rolling her eyes. “Let’s just get out of here, okay?”

* * *

 

All it had taken was for Mika to tell him to get on the back of her bike and he was there. He hadn’t ridden on the back for years and he had to force Fangs to promise that he wouldn’t let anyone touch his bike while he was gone with Mika.

Mika was a smooth rider. Sweet Pea wasn’t sure what he had expected but he enjoyed the ride, once they almost hit the sign of Greendale, he had no idea where they were going.

The dirt road was uneven and even Sweet Pea couldn’t believe the way she handled it. Up ahead behind some trees, he could just make out a cabin.

Mika pulled up in front of a worn out place that has shutters hanging from frames and a door that looks like it hasn’t been touched in the longest time. The engine cuts out as Mika steadies herself with her Docs on the ground. “Home, sweet home and all of that shit,” she laughs lightly.

Sweet Pea takes off his helmet and cocks an eyebrow, scuffing his own boot in the dirt. “So this is it, huh?” he asks.

“What?” she replies, already running towards the cabin, a grin on her face. “I didn’t tell you where we were going…”

“No,” he says shaking his head. “This is it. The end of me.”

Mika rolls her eyes, shaking the door handle and kicking the right hand corner to get it open. “What do you mean?” she says, still trying to shove the door. Sweet Pea saunters over and gives the door a light shove to which is opens immediately. “Ugh,” Mika groans. “Of course it works for you.”

“I mean,” Sweet Pea starts. “This is where you kill me, I’ve seen the thrillers, babe. This is the end.”

The cabin was run down, there wasn’t any denying it but in the corner was a bed that had been recently made and a pile of books next to a coffee table that had a half drunk coffee in it. “Don’t freak out!” Mika starts.

“So this is your murder house, huh?”

She chucks her handbag in the corner of the small room, next to the coffee table. “I found this a few weeks ago,” she explains. “I didn’t want to tell anyone because I hate people asking me questions and the last thing I need is people crashing out here trying to find me…”

Sweet Pea shrugs his jacket off his shoulders and throws it on a broken seat before sitting on the edge of the bed. “Your safe space or something?”

Mika pauses when she tips the drink out in an old sink. “I guess you could say that,” she nods. “I just really wanted you to see it.”

Sweet Pea watches Mika move through the cabin, legs moving slowly, her smile growing when he notices she finally feels free. “I’m glad you let me in your safe space.”

“I literally just stumbled on it. I like the ride to Greendale. It hadn’t been touched in years so Jug and I did some searching and we found the old land deed…” she says. “Well, he did. Not me. I watched him find the old land deed but it’s now not owned by anyone. Bought some stuff from home, enough shit to keep me occupied when I need to get out. Well, now, you know where it is so don’t abuse it but I just thought you’d kinda like it…”

Sweet Pea laughs as he notices that Mika is pacing up and down the room, hands on her hips and her bare feet on wood. She carries on making noise about Jughead, the kettle she bought from the thrift store and how she can hide the bike around the back so no one knows where she is. He thinks of why she would be chatting non-stop. All day she had been quick words and hurrying him along but now, when they’re alone, she hasn’t stopped. He leans back on the bed that creaks as he moves and just watches her. “So Jug knows where this is?”

“He’s the only one who knows, but you too now. But I can’t tell Toni or she’ll never leave me alone if she found out.”

The chatter continues. He loves talking to her, god, he knows it. And he’d never get sick of her voice but he stands up, almost hitting his head on a low-hanging beam. He knows he has to do it now, or it will never happen.

For once, he needs to be sure of himself in other ways than just in the Serpents.

Mika’s hand flies into the air and he catches it, pulling it down slowly. His heart races even just touching her and it’s fucking killing him. “Shit, I…”

Mika jerks her head back and looks at Sweet Pea with confusion. “Sweet -”

“Shush,” he says quickly. “Please,” he says slowly, taking a deep breath. “I just… I’ve just gotta do something and please, just trust me, okay? Shit,” he laughs. “Fuck, I really fucking suck at this but just tell me you trust me.” Mika just nods as she lets Sweet Pea walk her towards the bed. He sits her down first, on the edge and then he sits down next to her, placing his hands on his knees. “Do you still trust me?”

Mika rolls her eyes and sighs. “Obviously.”

“Nah, Mimi, you gotta say it.”

“I trust you!” she groans with frustration that makes him laugh.

Slowly he lifts his hand to Mika’s ear, brushing hair behind and smoothing down to her jaw. Down her neck.

Mika closes her eyes slowly as Sweet Pea leans in.

The movement was so slow, gently he placed his lips against hers but it was Mika who sighed into his touch and leaned in closer, placing her hands on Sweet Pea’s thighs to push her up.

It was when Mika started moving into him, her chest on his as Sweet Pea dotted right finger prints on her shoulders, moving down her body, scratching on her thigh.

She was quick against him when she rose up, never pulling away from his mouth. She tasted like chewing gum and last night’s beer when he could just manage to see the sun rising.

Sweet Pea’s nails scratch on her jeans when she straddles him, “Fuck,” she groans, “lie down,” she demands.

Sweet Pea stays sitting with his hands on her hips, letting her move against him, tasting the skin of her throat. “Don’t rush, babe,” he tells Mika across her collarbone.

Don’t rush, he tells himself.

Heavy kisses dull down just enough. He lets her touch him, across his chest, up the nape of his neck. “Please,” she insists.

Sweet Pea chuckles as he moves fingers across her bare skin. “Hang on, Mimi,” he murmurs, leaving himself in her hair. “We can’t rush a good thing, right?”

  
  
 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Show us love, and we will feed you in the form of chapters.

**Author's Note:**

> May we beg on hands and knees for love and reviews? Because we will... Initial chapters are short, but we get into the thick of it soon.  
> As always, board is the work of Aubrey. See us on tumblr here: serpentqueenz!


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